‘Cyber panda’ to offer emotional support

In a nursing home in Shenzhen, China, a loud bang startles an elderly resident. In response, an AI-enabled robot that looks like a panda cub slowly turns towards her.

“It’s okay – did that frighten you?” the robot asks her in a gentle tone. After a brief pause, the elderly woman pats the robot gently and smiles.

This “cyber panda”, named An’an, represents a breakthrough in emotional artificial intelligence.

Emotional support robots named An’an

Developed through a partnership between Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Mind with Heart Robotics Co. Ltd., An’an is designed to provide therapeutic support for elderly people, special education students, and those facing emotional stress.

Award-winning innovation

The project recently gained international prestige at the CES Innovation Awards 2026 in Las Vegas. Out of 3,600 global entries, An’an was named an honouree in the Artificial Intelligence category. It is the only “electronic pet” in the world to receive a CES award.

Active empathy

What sets An’an apart is its ability to move beyond simple emotion recognition to “active understanding.”

An’an includes a world-leading “multimodal empathetic dialogue” dataset. This structured collection of data trains the robot’s AI to understand and respond to human emotions through analysing different types of input it receives simultaneously. The robot can “see”, “hear” and “feel” human emotional cues – like vocal tones and facial expressions – to understand a person’s state of mind. It also includes tens of thousands of extended conversations about family, education, social interaction, and other key scenarios.

These various inputs, along with the database, allow it trace possible causes of an emotion and guide An’an in its response. For example, An’an can recognise that an elderly person’s silence might stem from loneliness, or a child’s restlessness may be caused by a chaotic environment.

By drawing on contextual inferences, An’an can proactively produce human-like empathetic responses. It might play nostalgic music when it senses a resident has been sitting listlessly for too long, or offer gentle words of encouragement to a child when it detects frustration.

“An’an’s warmth is personalised,” says Professor Jionglong Su, of the School of AI and Advanced Computing (AIAC) at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang) and the leader of the XJTLU research team. “It builds a unique emotional profile for each user, refining its communication over time.”

Joining forces

The robot is the flagship product of a joint laboratory that XJTLU and Mind with Heart Robotics established in June 2025. The lab leverages the partners’ strengths. With a strong research foundation in AI algorithms and leading computing architectures, XJTLU focuses on robotics, intelligent perception, bionic mechanism modelling, and human-robot interaction. Mind with Heart Robotics – a pioneer in developing biomimetic AI robots, which emulate natural organisms – handles engineering, hardware integration, and mass production.

Dr Kang Dang of XJTLU says that the partnership between the company and XJTLU’s School of AI and Advanced Computing (AIAC) serves as a bridge for talent, with students tackling real-world engineering challenges through internships while company engineers gain academic insights at the university.

“This ultimately fosters the integration of industry, academia, and research,” he says.

The XJTLU team: front, from left: Dr Mian Zhou, Professor Jionglong Su, Dr Kang Dang. Back, from left: Dr Tianming Bai, Dr Chong Li, Dr Zhengyong Jiang

Global expansion

The project will soon move into mass production. While the US is the primary market for robots like An’an, expansion is underway in the EU and Australia.

“We are partnering with several Australian hospitals to launch early clinical trials for patients with dementia,” Dr Dang says.

Despite its sophisticated AI, the creators emphasise that An’an is not a replacement for human connection.

“An’an is not designed to replace human love and companionship, but to serve as a powerful enabler — one that amplifies the impact of professional caregivers and fills the gaps in emotional support,” Dr Zhou says.

By Jiayan Ji
Edited by Tamara Kaup
Photos courtesy of Jionglong Su
Translated by Xueqi Wang