Virtuele mensen worden steeds zichtbaarder in het dagelijks leven. Ze lezen het nieuws, begeleiden patiënten, helpen met huiswerk en spelen hoofdrollen in films en games. Dankzij kunstmatige intelligentie en gametechnologie worden ze razendsnel overtuigender en zijn ze overal aanwezig. De vraag is niet meer óf ze ons leven binnenkomen, maar hoe we dat goed regelen.

Daar is de missie van VIVALDI. Als eerste nationale kennisplatform voor virtuele mensen brengt VIVALDI vijf hogescholen samen: Breda University of Applied Sciences, Fontys, Hogeschool Rotterdam, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht en Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Samen met partners uit zorg, onderwijs, media en industrie werken negen lectoraten aan de kennis die Nederland nodig heeft.

Dat klinkt als muziek in de oren

Want er liggen fundamentele vragen open. Hoe realistisch moet een virtuele mens zijn, en wanneer slaat dat door? Wat doen ze met ons gevoel van vertrouwen, identiteit en verbinding? Waarom blijven zoveel veelbelovende toepassingen steken als prototype? En wie bewaakt de normen en waarden die in elk virtueel mens worden ingebakken?

VIVALDI onderzoekt deze vragen systematisch, over sectoren en toepassingen heen. Het platform ontwikkelt gedeelde onderzoeksmethoden, praktijkgerichte ontwerpstandaarden en concrete governance-kaders. Bovendien staan het organiseren van een tweejaarlijkse nationale conferentie, samenwerking met beleidsmakers en het delen van de resultaten met de sector op het programma.

Het resultaat: een platform dat Nederland in positie brengt om virtuele mensen niet alleen te begrijpen, maar ook verantwoord te ontwikkelen en in te zetten, nu en in de toekomst.

Expertise vanuit de hoofdstad

De Hogeschool van Amsterdam draagt via de faculteit Digitale Media en Creatieve Industrie bij met twee samenwerkende onderzoeksgroepen, die VIVALDI verankeren in mensgerichte en maatschappelijk ingebedde digitale innovatie.

Vanuit Digital Life is available for download associate lector Child Technology Interaction Simone de Droog betrokken. Zij leidt onderzoek naar de manier waarop sociale robots en digitale personages positief, duurzaam en ethisch kunnen bijdragen aan het welzijn en de ontwikkeling van kinderen in zorg- en onderwijscontexten.

The L.INT-lectoraat Hybrid Realities onder leiding van Esther Hammelburg levert aan dit consortium waardevol onderzoek naar het thema liveness, evenals expertise op het gebied van virtual humans (VH’s) in de context van deathtech. Aangezien dit lectoraat een samenwerking is met het Rathenau Instituut, brengt het bovendien expertise en een netwerk op het gebied van overheid en beleid in, evenals ervaring met de dialoog met burgers en een focus op publieke waarden.

Children’s maths performance is declining. At the same time, the shortage of primary school teachers is increasing. The teaching time available is spent on the cognitive aspects of maths: ensuring that children understand and master the basic skills. But maths is a subject in which negative emotions also play a significant role – more so than in other subjects. And those emotions can have a negative impact on maths performance.

Although teachers agree that emotional aspects are important, they lack the time, knowledge, skills and appropriate tools to address these systematically. This gave rise to the idea of developing a robot assistant for teachers that takes children’s emotions towards maths into account. Based on brief, child-friendly micro-check-ins, the robot can deploy appropriate emotion-regulation strategies where necessary. In this way, both the cognitive and affective aspects of maths can be addressed, without placing additional time pressure on teachers.

Image & Video

Publications

Project duration

from 01-09-2026 to 01-09-2028

Project manager

Simone de Droog, associate lector Digital Life, Hogeschool van Amsterdam

Researchers

Somaya Ben Allouch, lector Digital Life, HvA

Marianne Bossema, docent-onderzoeker Digital Life, HvA

Monique Schaule Jullens, programmamanager Digital Life, HvA

Matthijs Smakman, lector, Hogeschool Utrecht

Veerle Hobbelink, promovendus, Hogeschool Utrecht

Rosa Alberto, onderzoeker, Hogeschool Utrecht

Mike Ligthart, assistent professor, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Sanne van der Ven, docent-onderzoeker, Radboud Universiteit

Funding

SIA RAAK Publiek

Partners

• Expertisecentrum Ponto
• Smartrobot.Solutions
• Florente basisscholen
• Gemeente Diemen

Dark Tech

Students from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences’ ICT programme were also present with two interactive robot demonstrations, developed at Studio Dark Tech on behalf of the Digital Life research group. Under the supervision of Professor Somaya Ben Allouch and Associate Professor Simone de Droog, the students explored how social robots can help foster connections between residents of Diemen.

Robot Riddles

For the festival, the students developed, amongst other things, a robot that showcased dance and music from different countries. Visitors were challenged to guess which country the music or dance came from. This sparked conversations about culture, recognition and differences in a playful way. The demo was enthusiastically received by young and old alike.

Daarnaast namen de studenten een robot mee die dieren nadeed in beweging en geluid. Vooral kinderen reageerden hier heel enthousiast op: zij mochten raden welk dier de robot uitbeeldde en gingen zichtbaar nieuwsgierig de interactie aan.

Social earning capacity

The festival demonstrated how technology can stimulate curiosity, interaction and conversation in an accessible way. For many visitors, it was the first time they had actually interacted with a robot. RoboUnity thus served as a fine example of how practice-oriented research and education can contribute to social cohesion.

How the Dream Robot helps imaginative children get through challenging moments

A jab, a tube, or going under anaesthetic: many children find these things nerve-wracking. A new research project is working on a unique solution: the Dream Robot. This robot distracts children through guided imagery. This is a proven method whereby a child can relax through a positive story.

The Dream Robot can move, talk and listen. It looks at children, waves and tells stories in a calm voice. Arine Vlieger, a paediatrician at St. Antonius and an expert in guided imagery, explains: “Fear often plays just as big a role as the procedure itself. If you can reduce that anxiety, the whole experience becomes more bearable. For the child, but also for parents and healthcare providers.”

Guided imagery – also known as medical hypnosis – is less daunting than it sounds. It’s all about focus and suggestion. Arine explains: “When a child imagines something vividly, the body reacts to it. For example: the child listens to a story about swimming underwater and sees all sorts of little fish in their imagination. Then the robot says that sometimes little fish might swim up against your nose. At that very moment, the probe is inserted. The child feels the ‘little fish’ instead of the medical procedure. That’s how the brain and the body work together.”

Guided imagery has been used in hospitals for some time, including by medical educators. However, they cannot always be present during every stressful moment. The Dream Robot project is investigating whether this support can also be provided by a robot.

Three versions of the Dream Robot have been created, for different medical situations: blood tests, tube insertions and anaesthesia. Arine helped develop the stories that the Dream Robot uses. “The child chooses a pleasant setting themselves, such as the beach or a hot-air balloon, and builds a story together with the robot,” explains Arine. “For children undergoing anaesthesia, the child first meets the robot in the day surgery unit. The robot accompanies them to the operating theatre and continues telling the story calmly whilst the anaesthetist puts the mask on. Because the child chooses the story themselves and is actively involved in it, the moment of the procedure is less stressful.”

“We noticed that the children taking part in the research project were completely absorbed by the Dream Robot and fully focused on the story it was telling. Even when someone walked in, they didn’t look up or turn around. Staff and parents also reacted enthusiastically,” says Simone de Droog enthusiastically. Simone is an Associate Lecturer in the Digital Life research group at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the project’s principal investigator. “Parents noticed that their child was relaxing, and that made them feel calmer too.”

The test also highlighted areas for improvement. For example, the robot’s volume was too low, particularly for children who have ear tubes fitted.

The Dream Robot is a collaboration between Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, St. Antonius Hospital, Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, Beatrix Children’s Hospital, Erasmus MC and various robotics and hypnosis experts.

The project has been running for two years and is nearing completion. All the findings are now being collated and incorporated into a step-by-step plan for implementation. Following this, a grant will be applied for to ensure that children experience far less anxiety in hospital in the future.

This article has also been published on the website at St. Antonius Hospital.

Een tweede artikel over het project Droomrobot is geplaatst in het vakblad Zorgvisie, waar Simone de Droog (associate lector bij Digital Life) op LinkedIn een mooie reflectie over schreef.

With increasing digitalization, children are engaging in offline play with others less frequently, resulting in heightened risks of loneliness, obesity, and underdeveloped social skills. Across Europe, this trend has contributed to the rise of an “anxious generation,” with mental health challenges linked to excessive social media exposure and declining face-to-face interactions.

While banning digital tools is not a viable solution – given their strong appeal and role in fostering digital literacy – emerging technologies offer an alternative approach. Robots, for instance, are increasingly recognized as effective mediators of interaction and play. Research highlights that children respond positively to robots, following their instructions and interacting with them as engaging, human-like playmates.

This project aims to develop a small, scalable, and autonomous ‘Playbot’ designed to inspire and facilitate play among children. Tailored to the weather, environment, personal preferences, and developmental needs, the Playbot will encourage children to engage in diverse offline activities together, fostering social connection and active play.

As a seed money initiative, this project will focus on creating and testing an initial prototype. The findings will identify critical knowledge gaps, key research and practical questions, and establish partnerships with European collaborators, laying the groundwork for a compelling and competitive Horizon grant application.

Project duration

1 Mar 2025 -31 Dec 2025

Project manager

dr Simone de Droog

Researchers

• prof. dr Somaya Ben Allouch
• Yuri Westplat MA, tutor at CMD and researcher at the lectorate Responsible IT (HvA)
• Pabo, Faculteit Onderwijs & Opvoeding | FOO (HvA)

Funding

Seedmoney of the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation (CoECI)

Within SPIRIT, research groups from universities of applied sciences are actively involved in the use of technology for manageable care. They are organised in a so-called “SPRONG group” to form a strong research basis for and with practice.

The basis of this SPRONG group consists of eleven research groups engaged in the development and deployment of care technology. They have been working together for several years in the national research platform Platform for the Deployment of Technology for Health and Wellbeing (PIT).

More spirit for healthcare professionals

SPIRIT focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of technology for Manpower-Friendly Care (TvBZ). “Manpower-friendly” refers to anything that helps healthcare personnel to do their work to a high standard and to their satisfaction. Reducing work pressure and deploying (scarce) healthcare personnel more intelligently contributes to this.

The aim of bringing together the relevant research groups in this SPIRIT consortium is to make the necessary technological innovation more effective and faster. Innovative projects and pilots are currently taking place throughout the Netherlands.

National collaboration with nine universities of applied sciences

Healthcare and knowledge institutions and entrepreneurs often do this at regional level in their own way, while elsewhere in the country there is often already knowledge available about how to approach this (better): How do you design something together with a specific target group? How do you implement a particular technology effectively? What are the appropriate methods for evaluating the added value?

By engaging in more intensive knowledge exchange at the national level in the areas of healthcare content, technology and methodology, we can learn to tackle these innovative processes more quickly, whether we are healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, teachers or practical researchers. But just as important: there will be more uniformity and coordination in methodological approach and less fragmentation/overlap in innovative projects. This ultimately puts less pressure on the healthcare workplace and helps entrepreneurs develop their innovations more quickly.

Better manageable care

The activities of the SPRONG group (and the underlying projects) focus on all phases of technological innovation. In addition to incorporating current activities related to evaluation/uniform valuation into SPRONG, the same approach is being taken with regard to research activities related to product development and the implementation and upscaling of healthcare technology. A technological innovation must – in all likelihood – lead to (better) manageable care.

All areas of care fall within the activities of the SPRONG group: participating healthcare parties come from elderly care, disabled care, hospital care, rehabilitation, but also mental healthcare.

Project duration

1 Jan 2026 -1 Jan 2030

Researchers

Funding

SPRONG | Regieorgaan SIA

Partners

• Hogeschool Windesheim
• Hogeschool Rotterdam
• NHL Stenden
• Hogeschool Saxion
• Hogeschool Utrecht
• Hogeschool Zuyd
• Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen (HAN)
• Fontys Hogeschool
• Omring

Anxiety and pain are common in children undergoing medical procedures. A new potential anxiety- and pain-reducing method for hospitals is the use of social robots. While these are successful in distracting children in the puncture room, hospitals want a robot that can be used more broadly, namely in various medical procedures among a wide age group of children. It is also important that the caregiver himself can easily deploy the robot within the care process.

Hospitals came up with the idea of programming a robot that can apply the medical hypnosis technique “guided fantasy”, using positive suggestions to give a different meaning to frightening thoughts or experience pain in a different way. The various question articulation discussions with hospitals, robot researchers, robot programmers and suppliers, medical hypnosis experts, and representatives of the robot industry and the child-in-hospital perspective, eventually led to the practical request to:

develop a plug-and-play robot that can effectively use guided fantasy to reduce anxiety and pain among 4- to 12-year-olds during various medical procedures in hospital, taking into account children’s personal and age-specific needs and practical feasibility and practicability.

This practice question will be answered through four work packages in collaboration with children, parents, caregivers, technicians and researchers:

1. First, the hospital practice situations and key robot requirements within the consortium will be mapped in order to use them to develop a first prototype of an AI-assisted (autonomous) social “dream robot” that applies guided imagination.
2. This prototype will first be further refined and better tailored to the practical situation in a series of short-term tests in different hospital practice situations.
3. Next, the dream robot will be tested on a large scale for its anxiety- and pain-reducing effects among children of different ages in a long-term hospital study.
4. Finally, what is needed for the wide adoption and introduction of the dream robot in hospitals will be identified.

Next steps

Over the next few years, the project will focus on testing the Dream Robot in different hospital contexts, closely involving children, parents and caregivers. This iterative approach will ensure that the robot is effective and user-friendly. The ultimate goal is to widely implement the Dream Robot, making a substantial contribution to children’s comfort and well-being during medical procedures.

Project duration

1 Sep 2024 -31 Aug 2026

Project manager

dr Simone de Droog (HvA / HU)

Researchers

prof. dr Somaya Ben Allouch

Funding

RAAK-publiek

Partners

• Beatrix Kinderziekenhuis
• Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam (Erasmus MC)
• Hogeschool Utrecht
• smartrobot.solutions
• Praktijk voor Medische Hypnose
• Prinses Maxima Centrum voor Kinderoncologie
• Stichting Kind en Ziekenhuis
• Stichting Sint Antonius Ziekenhuis
• Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht (UMCU)
• Vereniging High Tech NL
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)

Development and evaluation of a combined physical activity and nutrition intervention for frail elderly people

Every year in the Netherlands, 53,000 frail elderly people are admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation centre for a short period of time. Upon returning home, their rehabilitation is often scaled down and taken over by an outpatient counselling programme or primary care. A large proportion of these frail elderly people experience a decline in physical functioning and self-reliance at home. They benefit from intensive care in terms of nutrition and exercise.

A blended intervention offers opportunities: a combination of online and face-to-face counselling, focusing on healthy exercise and nutrition behaviour. But such an intervention requires customisation. BITE-IT’s project team is therefore developing a blended nutrition and exercise programme for elderly people rehabilitating at home.

OBJECTIVE
To support rehabilitating elderly people and their therapists in optimising physical functioning at home. To this end, researchers are developing and testing a blended nutrition and exercise programme in practice.

Ambulatory and first-line dieticians, physio- and remedial therapists consider blended care promising. Unfortunately, little knowledge is available about which ingredients of blended care work and which do not. We are conducting research into this. This is essential because blended care is also increasingly used in everyday practice.

EXPECTED RESULTS/PRODUCTS
Knowledge on how care professionals can use blended care with elderly people rehabilitating at home.
A blended rehabilitation programme for dieticians, physio- and remedial therapists.
Insight into the feasibility and initial effectiveness of the developed blended rehabilitation programme.

SOCIAL IMPACT
In its report ‘De Juiste Zorg Op De Juiste Plek’, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport emphasises a turnaround in healthcare: the functioning of people in their own living environment should take centre stage. This ties in with the BITE-IT intervention, which focuses on caring for older people in their own home environment.

CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
Within the programmes of Nutrition and Dietetics, Physiotherapy and Exercise Therapy, the concepts of self-reliance and self-management form the starting point of action. Blended care is promising in this respect. Using blended care requires a different way of working from students and healthcare professionals. Therefore, the components of this project are embedded in the study programmes of the above-mentioned programmes. Among other things, the project focuses on making care professionals competent in offering blended care, in which technological developments play a major role.

The related article ‘BITE-IT: betere thuisrevalidatie voor ouderen door blended care’ can be read on the website of the HvA Centre of Expertise Urban Vitality.

Project duration

1 Apr 2024 -1 Apr 2028

Project manager

dr Daniel Bossen, Faculteit Gezondheid (HvA)

Researchers

prof. dr Somaya Ben Allouch
dr Simone de Droog
prof. dr Bart Visser, Faculteit Gezondheid (HvA)
Marije Holstege, Hogeschool Inholland

Funding

SIA RAAK

Partners

• Amsterdam UMC
• Zorggroep Groningen
• Zorggroep Groenhuysen
• De zorgcirkel
• Omring
• Malnucare
• Diëtistengroep Amsterdam
• Fysiotherapie Collectief Amsterdam
• Netwerk Oefentherapeuten Amsterdam
• Voeding en Beweging.nu
• Participe Amstelland
• VIVICA
• Landelijk expertisecentrum Pharos
• Nederlandse Vereniging van Diëtisten
• Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fysiotherapie in de Geriatrie
• Vereniging voor Oefentherapeuten
• VeiligheidNL
• Happetize
• HealthTrain
• Robin Health Games

The COVID-19 measures have a major impact on how children are educated worldwide. Dutch children also had to make the switch in the first lockdown from physical to digital education. During the second lockdown, education and interaction between teachers and students was again mainly via screens.

The purpose of this application is to build on an already existing application by (further) developing social robotics as a learning tool to support teachers and students in the upper years, namely groups 6, 7 and 8, of primary education to gain insight into an increase in accumulated learning disadvantages due to COVID-19 measures in math education among students.

In addition to obtaining the insights, social robotics and the associated math modules will also be used to support teachers in providing math education to students in a motivating way.

The broad consortium, consisting of primary schools, teacher training colleges, municipalities, robotics company, colleges and universities, makes it possible to go through an iterative cycle during the project so that adjustments to the social robot can be made during the duration of the project. With this approach, the outcomes after the project can be integrated without too much extra development time into the already available infrastructure of primary schools for the use of social robotics in the learning process.

This research will provide insights into 1) the functioning of the diagnostic and educational function of social robotics in mathematics education in upper primary education; 2) the use and implementation of social robotics to reduce COVID-19 learning gaps in upper primary education; 3) how technological innovations such as social robotics are used by teachers in the learning process of their students and whether they experience a facilitating role of the robot in this; and 4) the empowering role that innovations in education can have in limiting the negative consequences such as the COVID-19 learning disadvantages.

Please see the  SOROCOVA website for up to date information about the project.

Image & Video

Publications

Design Specifications for a Social Robot Math Tutor – ‘Best Studies Paper Award – Runner up’

(2023 )Mike Ligthart, Simone de Droog, Marianne Bossema, Lamia Elloumi, Kees Hoogland, Matthijs Smakman, Koen Hindriks & Somaya Ben AllouchHRI ’23  >>download

Project duration

1 Jun 2021 -31 May 2023

Project manager

prof. dr Somaya Ben Allouch

Researchers

dr Simone de Droog

Marianne Bossema MSc

drs Monique Schaule Jullens

dr. Lamia Elloumi

Koen Hindriks, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Matthijs Smakman, Hogeschool Utrecht

Kees Hoogland, Hogeschool Utrecht

Stan van Ginkel, Hogeschool Utrecht

Funding

SIA COVID-19 fonds

Partners

• Vrije Universiteit Amsterrdam
• Hogeschool Utrecht
• Florente Basisscholen
• Gemeente Diemen
• Gemeente Amsterdam
• Universiteit van Amsterdam
• Interactive Robotics