With fictional Terminators and Ultrons filling up our movie theaters, it’s easy to forget that actual robots can deeply enrich people’s lives in ways never thought possible before. For a six-year-old named Anthony Longo, one such robot is making sure that he gets to attend kindergarten alongside his classmates, even if he’s not physically in the same room as them.

As reported by NJ.Com, Longo has been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, ever since he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His strenuous chemotherapy sessions have left him with a weakened immune system, which makes it difficult for him to leave the home or otherwise interact with others. For most of the year, Longo was unable to keep up with his fellow students at the Clifton E. Lawrence School. But after this spring break, thanks to a donation by the Valerie Fund Children's Center at Morristown Medical Center, Longo found himself in possession of a VGo, a slender-framed, wheeled, and white-colored robot able to navigate Deb Puskas' kindergarten classroom. Longo, the fifth and youngest person to be given a VGo by the Valerie Fund, communicates with his robot through a iPad, maneuvering his helper with simple arrow directions. And he’s able to look in on the class (and vice-versa) through a small screen fixed atop the VGo. "He was six weeks behind and now he's almost caught up to where the kids are in the classroom," Ilene Sargent, Anthony's grandmother and caretaker, told NJ.Com.

The VGo is another in a growing line of telepresence robots that are beginning to enable people to read bedtime stories to their children, visit their elderly parents and, as in Longo’s case, attend school, from great distances. As his story shows, the utility of these robots is especially profound among the disabled or otherwise incapacitated. Far from separating people from one another, these new technologies are bridging the gap between the impersonal and personal, especially for Longo’s classmates. "They love him being there and they love to include him," Puskas told NJ.com.

As Longo continues his chemotherapy treatment with hopes of returning to school in the fall, it seems that in the meantime the VGo, named Anthony of course, is giving him a slice of his old life back. And he won’t be the last one, with the Valerie Fund Children’s Center receiving the money to purchase and loan out four more VGo’s to those in need.

While there’s nothing wrong with being wary of how technology in general will influence our day-to-day lives, it can be refreshing to be reminded of its potential, especially for those who previously were left out of the equation. Now if only we could invent a robot to do our homework for us.