Smart hugging robot Size doll can do more for less money

The last finalist for the National Healthcare Innovation Award is Smart.Solutions. Their Maatje doll walked away with the wildcard. This doll costs less than the robots already on the market, but can do much more.

Founder Richard Kuijpers confident he can go far with the wildcard, "Four years ago we also had a wildcard for the Health Valley Bridge Prize, with a different robot. Then we came from nothing and then we just won. So I am confident that it can be done. Even with the wildcard, we now have a good chance of winning again."

Cuddle robot

Maatje pop is a soft day structure cuddling robot that can do all sorts of things. Kuijpers: "It includes a light sensor to determine whether it is day or night, a radar to monitor the client, a stress meter and a signaling plan. You can also listen to music and play games with it."

Kuijpers really wanted to develop a new robot. "To do that, we first looked at what was already on the market. You have cuddly cats, robots with day structures, sleep robots, pillows with crackling paper and weighted blankets. All those functions we combined in one doll."

No clown or Chucky

There is now the choice of a boy and a girl. Development took about a year and a half. "We made as many as twenty different sketches of dolls, of clothes, of eyes and of hair. With dolls, it really listens very closely. Many people are afraid of clowns or of Chucky. Of course, you don't want a robot to scare people off. Right now, the dolls are only available in a white edition, but that should start to change as well."

Pushbuttons

In addition, the doll must be able to withstand rough handling. "There are push buttons in the hands, it took us about three months to develop the right ones which click fine and are robust. Even if someone presses the button a thousand times, it has to keep working. The cables must not snap. And if a cup of tea goes over it once, the doll must continue to work."

Caregivers and informal caregivers control the doll via a platform. This works very simply, according to Kuijpers: "Inside the dolls is a KPN card. The doll is always online. And recharging is only necessary once every four days."

Not in the closet

The robots should not end up in the closet, Kuijpers believes. "If that happens, we haven't done the implementation properly. So I no longer sell robots without training. Moreover, there must be a plan for implementation."

It makes a lot of difference in an organization who pulls the cart, he has noticed. "I recently had an organization, where ten employees were super enthusiastic, but the project leader who had nothing to do with it. Then suddenly everyone was negative. Certainly if someone at a high level does not cooperate, then it is not going to work. Then you don't need to start. Fortunately, there are plenty of organizations where they festively welcome our dolls with flags and even rusks with mice."

Size pop costs around 1,200 euros, to which is added a yearly license of 495 euros incl. KPN data card. Kuijpers: "That may seem like a lot of money. Because it also saves hours, the doll quickly pays for itself. In fact, research shows that users of the doll require a number of hours less care per week. Moreover, the other care robots currently on the market are often thousands of euros more expensive, while they can do less."

Health insurance reimbursement is still pending. "We have been working for three years to get Maatje robot, the predecessor of Maatje pop, reimbursed. It takes a long time, but eventually it will definitely succeed. "

The dolls are assembled in Nijmegen by people immediately distant from the labor market. "So we also offer them a day structure."

Further development

If Maatje pop is among the prize winners, the prize money goes into further development. "We finance everything ourselves. We have no shareholders at all and no loans are running anywhere. We've been around for about 12 years now and we make our money from the licenses of Robot Maatje and renting out robots, for example at events. We've built up a buffer with that, but it's almost gone now."

Attention

Even more important than the prize money, Kuijpers thinks, is the attention for Maatje Pop. "New doors will then open for us. Because of the extra publicity, even more people can derive joy from our invention. And that's what we do it all for, after all."

Zorginnovatie.nl will award the National Care Innovation Prize for the most innovative care innovation in the scale-up phase for the tenth time in 2025. Participants have a chance to win the professional jury prize worth 10,000 euros and the public prize worth 5,000 euros. The eight finalists pitched their healthcare innovation to an expert jury during the Health Valley Event on March 13, 2025. Voting for the audience award can be done until April 8. The winners will be announced on April 9 during Zorg & ict, part of Dutch Health Week.