It’s a typical school day for Grady Loper. He attends Lake Country School in Hartland, Wisconsin. In the morning, the fourth-grader discusses the previous night’s reading homework with his classmates. In the afternoon, he attends Spanish class down the hall. But there’s actually something remarkable about this day. Grady is doing all of this without leaving home.
Grady suffers from a medical condition that forces him to miss school for several days in a row. On days when he can’t make it to class, a robot takes his place.
Grady controls the robot from home, using the arrow keys on his laptop computer. An iPad hooked up to the robot streams two-way video. That lets Grady see what’s going on in class and lets his teachers and classmates see him. The robot enables Grady to keep up with his schoolwork and his friends when he can’t be in the classroom.
“It kind of takes stress off my shoulders,” says Grady. “I don’t have to worry as much about getting sick and falling behind in school.”