Assist-as-needed in lower extremity robotic therapy for children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that can involve different brain and nervous system functions, the most prominent of which is movement. Recently, our lab developed the alpha-prototype of a novel pediatrie ankle robot to aid recovery of ankle function in children with CP ages 5 to 8 years old. In this paper, we describe an amalgamation of new concepts and ones inherited from our 20-year experience on robot-assisted therapy for the upper extremities. Our scope is to present an algorithm that tracks the performance of children and adapts accordingly two gameplay parameters, namely the game speed and the target width. Our proposed algorithm uses concepts derived from the speed-accuracy tradeoff in an attempt to expedite optimal therapeutic results.