Beam robot empowers sick children to attend football matches remotely
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and DHL Express Ireland are offering young Irish fans a unique football experience. The new DHL x FAI Beam robot allows children and young people suffering with illness, injury, or incapacitation to attend matches and interact with players remotely.
In a trial run of the new robotic equipment, young Ireland fanatic Simon Smyth from Swords, Dublin got up close and personal with Stephen Kenny’s squad using the new FAI Beam Robot sponsored by DHL. Smyth was able to meet and chat with members of the Republic of Ireland squad from the comfort of his own home, using and controlling this unique telepresence robotic equipment.
The main intention of the Beam robot is to provide ill, injured, or incapacitated children and young people with the opportunity to visit a stadium, attend a match, a training session or indeed any football event remotely. The robot is equipped with software that allows real interaction, with the robot becoming the mouth, eyes, and ears of the young fan.
By using an app, the young fan can join the players in the stadium or training ground making it possible for a fan who cannot attend the match due to illness or injury to join the players line-up in the tunnel, be pitch-side, and interact with the players.
“This is a great innovation,” said Derek O’Neill, community development manager, FAI,” and we are delighted to partner with DHL to make it accessible to young Ireland fans who may not be able to access a stadium or a match. Children with a serious illness or injury can feel socially isolated and excluded and this isolation and exclusion can lead to even poorer mental and physical health.
“The Beam robot programme can provide access for children who are hospitalised, incapacitated or undergoing treatment from home to enjoy the experience of visiting their favourite football club and perhaps meeting their favourite players through a robot that is remotely controlled by the child themselves.”
The FAI said it intends to make the robot available to League of Ireland (LOI) clubs to assist their community outreach. Many LOI clubs already deliver great programmes and activities to include young and older people locally and it said the Beam robot can “further increase the club’s community engagement capacity by providing an opportunity to reach local children who through illness may have become isolated or disconnected from the live sport experience.”
Research shows that providing opportunities for children who are hospitalised long term or who incapacitated can increase both their psychological and physiological wellbeing. Considering that over 80% of children follow football to some degree, and more than 50% consider themselves fans, football has enormous scope to help children with illness.
Last week, Smyth had the chance to have a memorable chat with Irish captain Seamus Coleman and members of the Irish team and really enjoyed the experience. Together with the FAI, DHL aims to facilitate similar opportunities for many more children.
Already many children have enjoyed a unique robot experience at clubs like FC Barcelona, be it a match-day, a training session or club tour. The children involved said that for the time they were operating the telepresence robot, it felt like they were outside the hospital and that they also felt closer to the outside world.
DHL Express Ireland recently celebrated 25 years as the Official Logistics Partner of the FAI. Brian Murray, commercial director at DHL Express Ireland said: “At DHL, our company’s purpose is connecting people and improving lives and we are delighted to collaborate on such an incredible initiative with the FAI, to connect sick children with their heroes.
“The past number of years have been extremely difficult, particularly for children who are hospitalised and isolated. Working with the FAI and our Charity partner Children’s Health Foundation, we are very excited to provide numerous children in Ireland with unique experiences through sport that they will never forget.”
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