Boston Children’s Hospital
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A challenge for assisting young developmentally-delayed children in learning to walk is to (1) stabilize medio-lateral body sway while promoting opportunities for exploratory behavior, and (2) develop gait that exploits exchange of potential and kinetic energy. To meet the challenge, we have built a modular multi-robot CPS: a scaffold that applies forces at the pelvis via cables to modulate and stabilize center of mass behavior, and a wearable robot that applies assistive torques at the hip.
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This project is a modular, computationally-distributed multi-robot cyberphysical system (CPS) for assisting young developmentally-delayed children in learning to walk. Three challenges are stabilizing medio-lateral body sway, developing gait that exploits energy exchange, and coordination of multiple degrees of freedom. Adults assisting children learning to walk provide a "scaffold" of postural supports that enables the child to safely explore the forces acting on its body.
