This National Robotics Initiative (NRI 2.0) project will conduct fundamental research on novel robot-mediated physical therapy interventions encouraging desired motor behaviors in infants with developmental delays. About 7% of children in the US experience developmental disabilities that impact sensorimotor, social, and cognitive functioning. Because these functions are closely interrelated, children may benefit broadly from early motion interventions, such as body-weight-supported locomotion, designed to encourage motor exploration and practice. This project will employ iterative design techniques to develop and then test an intelligent mobile robot capable of learning how best to elicit desired motor behaviors in body-weight-supported infants. The project will advance the progress of science and advance the national health by developing novel hardware and algorithms that will advance the ability of assistive robots to personalize therapeutic interventions for infants with developmental delays. Additional broader impacts include education and outreach activities engaging women and underrepresented minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
This project will develop and assess a novel mobile robot system that engages infants with developmental delays in play activities that encourage desired sensorimotor functioning. The proposed work is organized into three "thrusts": (1) iteratively designing an appropriate and robust co-robot, (2) establishing an adaptive "behavior-planning" framework for implementing intelligent robot-mediated engagement strategies, and (3) performing human subject experiments to evaluate the framework and assess the robotic system’s potential to assist in physical therapy interventions. This project will yield algorithms that can personalize sensorimotor interactions to individual infant needs. The project will compare the physical and social behaviors of children participating in motor interventions with and without an assistive robot. This project will yield the hardware and computational framework for future randomized controlled trials and long-term studies of the robotic system in natural environments of interest, such as in clinics and homes.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
