A robot therapist helps children with mobility problems

Spanish researchers have developed an android, designed for child rehabilitation, which is capable of interacting with patients and recognizing their gestures and movements to monitor their therapy.

Carried out under the framework of the Therapist scientific project, Spanish researchers have developed a robot therapist that facilitates the recovery of children who have psychomotor problems.

In this project, in which they participate Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), the University of Malaga, the University of Extremadura and the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital from Seville, The humanoid robot NAO has been converted, of 58 centimeters high and just over four kilos in weight, into a personal therapist that offers a great capacity for movement and, It is also social, autonomous and interactive.

The robot is capable of perceiving the reactions of the little ones and interacting with them. In the event that the child does not perform the movements correctly, the android tells you visually, through the color of your eyes and, thanks to his voice and his body expression, shows you how to do it.

The android is equipped with recognition technology to identify gestures and movements. This is done through the cameras and sensors that it integrates and whose data are interpreted by an algorithm that analyzes the images to determine the child's moods.. Besides, has the autonomy and intelligence to discern what the patient does well and what he or she does poorly.

UC3M's work has focused on task planning and machine learning, something that allows “giving the robot the ability to decide what actions to execute at each moment and adapt to the characteristics of the patient and the rehabilitation session that is being carried out”, explains Fernández Rebollo, responsible for the project within the Planning and Learning research group (P.L.G) from the IT department of UC3M.

The therapist robot is equipped with a control architecture, called Robocog that can be applied to other therapeutic robots such as Ursus, which the University of Extremadura is currently working on within this consortium.

These robotic physiotherapists will fine-tune their behavior thanks to the algorithms being researched by the University of Malaga that, as José Carlos González points out, Researcher in Planning and Learning (P.L.G) from UC3M, “They allow us to recognize, thanks to the camera that incorporates the child's gestures, and determine when he or she is smiling.”, when he gets angry or when he is having a hard time doing the exercise”.

Its appearance resembles a doll with which children feel comfortable to carry out their therapy and encourages motivation.. “A robot that doesn't look like a robot, that gives the child the feeling that he is alive and that he interacts socially with him.”, explains Fernando Fernández Rebollo, responsible for the project within the Planning and Learning research group (P.L.G) from the IT department of UC3M.

The objective of this research program is to collaborate with the medical rehabilitation services of hospitals in the definition of therapies in which this tool has a place..

This robotic therapist could be a reality in Spanish medicine and could even boost the rehabilitation processes of children with pathologies such as cerebral palsy in a few years..

At the moment, It is a project that is in the development phase. The researchers point out that it is necessary to define the metrics to correctly evaluate the degree of success of the new rehabilitation therapy and the degree of interaction with the patient that this physiotherapist robot can achieve., as well as what their contribution can be in the evaluation and monitoring of therapies.

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