“What we are going for by using materials like nylon and elastic are essentially robotic garments,” said the project’s lead Jonathan Realmuto.
Engineers are developing inexpensive robotic “clothing” to help children with cerebral palsy with their arm movements.
The devices come from engineers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and are intended to provide more arm movement control and will be created from soft textiles.
“Hard materials don’t interact well with humans,” said project lead Jonathan Realmuto.
“What we are going for by using materials like nylon and elastic are essentially robotic garments.”
The use of widely available materials and the intention of the project team to minimise the use of sophisticated electronics should keep the price of the sleeves low for cerebral palsy patients.
It is meant to work by using airtight areas that can inflate to make them go rigid briefly and provide the force needed for movement.
“Let’s say you want to flex the elbow for a bicep curl,” Realmuto said.
“We can inject air into specially designed bladders embedded in the fabric that would propel the arm forward.”
The project team will need to not only construct the robotic garments, but also develop algorithms to teach the machine how to predict movements that the wearer wants to make.
“One of the critical challenges in providing movements assistance is interpreting a person’s intention,” said Realmuto.
“We want a “volitional controller,” so the robot behaves in terms of what the human wants to do.”
The Children’s Hospital of Orange County is in partnership with the project, and patients from a pediatric movement disorder clinic will help in the testing and refining of the prototypes.
Annual meetings at the hospital, which will include occupational therapists as well as the patients and their families, will be held for each of the four years of the project.
“If we can help kids brush their own teeth, pour water or open doors, actions that others take for granted, it’s a huge win for them,” Realmuto said.
“But it’s also a win for their families and caretakers.”
While the project is primarily concentrating on helping children with movement disorders, the technology could eventually be applied to other populations.
