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Two UD researchers - James C. (Cole) Galloway, associate professor of physical therapy, and Sunil Agrawal, professor of mechanical engineering - have outfitted kid-size robots to provide mobility to children who are unable to fully explore the world on their own.
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The work is important because much of infant development, both of the brain and behavior, emerges from the thousands of experiences each day that arise as babies independently move and explore their world. This is the concept of "embodied development," Galloway said.
Infants with Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism and other disorders can have mobility limitations that disconnect them from the ongoing exploration that their peers enjoy.
"If these infants were adults, therapists would have options of assistive technology such as power wheelchairs," Galloway said. "Currently, children with significant mobility impairments are not offered power mobility until they are 5-6 years of age, or older. This delay in mobility is particularly disturbing when you consider the rapid brain development during infancy. Their actions, feelings and thinking all shape their own brain's development. Babies literally build their own brains through their exploration and learning in the complex world."
When a baby starts crawling and walking, everything changes for everyone involved. "Now consider the negative impact of a half decade of immobility for an infant with already delayed development," Galloway said. "When a baby doesn't crawl or walk, everything also changes. Immobility changes the infant, and the family. Given the need, you would think that the barriers to providing power mobility must be insurmountable. In fact, the primary barrier is safety." Therapists and parents fear a young child in a power wheelchair might mistakenly go the wrong way, end up in a roadway and get hit by a car.
"This is, of course, understandable, and is the same fear that every parent with a newly walking infant faces. It is the solution to the safety problem that is the real barrier. The current clinical practice is to avoid power mobility until the child can follow adult commands," Galloway said. "Your parents didn't wait until you followed their every command before they let you walk - they held your hand, they required you to stay near them, and alerted you to obstacles in your way. This is the way infants learn real world navigation, and it is exactly these safety features that are being built into our mobile robot."
"Our first prototype, affectionately called UD1, was designed with smart technology that addresses each of these safety issues so that infants have the opportunity to be a part of the real world environment," Agrawal said.
The tiny robot is ringed with sensors that can determine the obstacle-free roaming space, and will either allow infants to bump obstacles or will take control from the infant and drive around the obstacle itself. The next prototype, UD2, will build on the current technology to provide additional control to a parent, teacher or other supervising adult.
"In this way, we can bind technology and human need together to remove barriers for movement in the environment," Agrawal said.
Galloway said no one had ever tried using robots with babies - early experiments show that seven-month-olds can learn to operate the simple joystick controls - and he is passionate about the possible benefits to children with special needs of even younger ages.
"Infants
