Case studies of a robot enhanced walker for training of children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder of movement and posture in children caused by non-progressive insult of the immature brain. The characteristic features are weakness, spasticity, muscle contractures, and poor motor coordination. The gait patterns of children with CP are slow, uncoordinated, and unstable. Our hypothesis is that these impaired children will benefit from robot enhanced walkers to improve their balance, coordination, and speed during gait. In addition, this experience will also impact their clinical scores that relate to their functional performance and caregiver assistance. In this study, we used a specially-designed robotic walker which children used to perform a series of walking tasks, in increasing order of difficulty. This study was performed in 30 training sessions over a period of 3 months. Each training session lasted for 20 minutes. The outcome measures were variables recorded by the robot such as travel distance, average speed, and clinical measured variables that characterize their disability profiles.