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Six-month-old Aniya Harris guides a robot, dubbed UD1, toward her aunt Daina Montgomery, Friday, Nov. 30, 2007, in Newark, Del. Researchers at the University of Delaware believe UD1 holds the promise of opening up new horizons for disabled infants, especially those with orthopedic problems
or muscular dystrophy.
(AP Photo/Rob Carr)
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NEWARK, Del. -- With a 6-month-old at the controls, researchers at the University of Delaware are encouraging underage driving. Their ultimate goal is to help immobile, disabled children move and explore.
The researchers are using robotics in an odd contraption that's sort of a cross between a bumper car and a robot. In a recent test, Aniya Harris, a normally developing 6-month-old, scooted across the floor in delight by pushing a joystick on the little vehicle. She's too young to steer it.
"I think she thinks, 'Joystick means go.' I'll take that right now," said Cole Galloway, a physical therapy professor who heads the infant motor behavior lab.
He and the other researchers believe the robot, dubbed UD1, holds the
promise of opening up new horizons for disabled infants, especially
those with orthopedic problems or muscular dystrophy. Wheeled robots
could enable them to move and explore the world around them, which
studies suggest is critical to their development.
Researchers
in the United Kingdom have been working for years on powered mobility
for toddlers. However, Galloway said, conventional wisdom has held that
because of safety issues, children aren't considered ready for that
until age 4 or 5; the earliest age doctors might recommend powered
mobility is age 3.
That means too many children are at risk of losing out on the important
early link between mobility and their overall development, he said.
"As soon as you're reaching, as soon as you're walking, your cognition explodes," Galloway explained.
Sunil Agrawal, a professor of mechanical engineering at the university, has been working for years on wheeled robots with infrared and sonar sensors that can avoid obstacles. A prototype based on those models is being used in studies involving about a dozen typically developing infants and a smaller number who have special needs.
Using a computer and wireless technology, researchers can measure the frequency and duration of joystick use by a child; the location, speed, and distance traveled by the vehicle; and the amount of time spent "driving."
During a recent visit, Aniya sat in UD1's blue plastic seat and tugged on the joystick as her aunt, Daina Montgomery, beckoned from a few feet away with a toy. The little girl whirred across the floor to her aunt.
While Aniya has no disabilities, her aunt believes the mobility experiment has helped her move rapidly from an early stage crawl to being able to climb stairs and pull herself up.
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University of Delaware
researchers Sunil Agrawal, left, and Cole Galloway, right, watch as
six-month-old Aniya Harris, guides a robot, dubbed UD1, toward her aunt
Daina Montgomery, Friday, Nov. 30, 2007, in Newark, Del. The two
researchers believe UD1 holds the promise of opening up new horizons
for disabled infants, especially those with orthopedic problems or
muscular dystrophy.
(AP Photo/Rob Carr)
|
Galloway and Agrawal said their research is still early, and parents shouldn't expect to see robotic vehicles on the market anytime soon. They hope to get funding to continue their research and develop a second-generation robot.
A few similar products are already commercially available in England, including the "Wizzybug." It was developed by researchers at the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering for disabled 2- to 5-year-olds. While it doesn't have some of the robotic features of UD1, the Wizzybug has both a programmable joystick and parental control.
Nina Evans, a research occupational therapist at the institute, said children using the Wizzybug are able to sit in a safe and functional position while learning about movement.
Ruth Everard of Dragonmobility Ltd. in Cambridge, England, another producer of powered vehicles, said the research at UD should add to the existing body of knowledge about mobility and the developmental needs of children.
"I think it's really important that people combine their knowledge and look at what's been done before," she said.
Everard, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, was 21 months old when her father designed a powered chair for her, spawning a company that has provided mobility for children as young as 11 months old.
"I find it tiring that I'm still being told it's cutting edge, and I'm 28," she said.
On the Net:
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Six-month-old Aniya Harris uses the joystick to guide a robot, dubbed UD1, toward her aunt Daina Montgomery, Friday, Nov. 30, 2007, in Newark, Del. Researchers at the University of Delaware believe UD1 holds the promise of opening up new horizons for disabled infants, especially those with orthopedic problems or muscular dystrophy.
(AP Photo/Rob Carr)
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University of Delaware:
http://www.udel.edu
Bath Institute of Medical Engineering:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/bime/home
Dragonmobility Ltd.:
http://www.dragonmobility.com
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Babies driving robots at University of Delaware
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Quickly learning to drive a robot by using a joystick, an infant at the University of Delaware's Early Learning Center happily
explores his world. |
3:56 p.m., Nov. 9, 2007--Babies driving robots. It sounds like the theme of a cartoon series but it is actually the focus of important and innovative research being conducted at the University of Delaware that could have significant repercussions for the cognitive development of infants with special needs.
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.
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.
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UD1 robot developers (from left) Sunil Agrawal, professor of mechanical engineering, James (Cole) Galloway, associate professor of physical therapy, and Ji-Chul Ryu, a doctoral candidate in UD's Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
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 with limited mobility play in one location while their peers or siblings go off on distant adventures all over the room or playground," Galloway said. "With the robot, they become the center of attention because their classmates want to try it. We predict that this increased social interaction alone will provide an important boost in their cognitive development."
The idea sprang from a parking lot conversation in which Agrawal approached Galloway, who he knew worked with babies with special needs, and said he might have developed something of interest. Agrawal is a robotics expert who had been developing a fleet of small, rounded robots that could work as a unit through a wireless network.
Galloway knew of Agrawal's successes with rehabilitation robotics for adults but admitted to being anti-robot for pediatric rehabilitation at first. Galloway was convinced otherwise within minutes of his first visit to Agrawal's laboratory. "When I saw his little robots, it was easy to envision a baby driving one," he said. "We knew from our previous work that newly reaching infants could use a joystick to control a distant toy. This and other research strongly suggests that very young infants can be trained in real world navigation. It was a special feeling to see a potential solution to a really serious health-care gap for young kids. There was and still is a special tingle when we think of the not so distant future. "
Thus, UD1 was born. The researchers took their robot to the UD Early Learning Center, which has a wide range of infants, a gymnasium for initial training on the robot and a varied outdoor landscape to use as a test track.
"It was a relief when we saw that the children quickly grasped the use of the joystick," Agrawal said. "If they had just sat there or cried, it would have been back to the drawing board. But over time we have seen them gradually increase their time with the robot and the amount of distance they cover."
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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 project will now move on to a second generation with more than one robot. The goal is to place multiple mobile robots with special needs infants in communities throughout Delaware and to gather data to analyze how they are used and what the children learn so that the research team can continue to make modifications.
Both note that Delaware, with its mix of urban, rural and suburban communities, is a model state for a clinical project such as this. "For a real world mobility device to emerge, we have to build it for exploring the real world experienced by infants and their families, and then rigorously study its performance in that world," Galloway said.
Both said the project will significantly expand understanding of young infants' learning capacity and provide a model for tracking the development of real world exploration with laboratory quality data.
They believe the training, robot design and new technology derived from the project will provide the foundation for the first generation of safe, smart vehicles for infants born with mobility impairments.
They want the UD1 product to be light enough for moms to stow in a car trunk, and robust enough for babies to use in the home, yard and playground, and maybe even the beach.
This interdisciplinary project is bringing together students and researchers from fields that have had little or no interaction: engineering, early childhood education and pediatric therapy.
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The UD1 robot is being
developed to be light enough for moms to stow in a car trunk, and
robust enough for babies to use in the home, yard and playground. |
"The research, educational and health care impact is hard to overestimate, given the critical nature of early development, the relatively short time to prepare special needs infants to enter mainstream education and the complete lack of power mobility early in life," Galloway said. "This project has so many positives, and is of interest to so many in the community. We are encouraging everyone interested in special needs infants to get involved--from parents to policymakers. We are thinking locally and globally at the same time."
He added, "Although there are special needs kids in every community, you have never seen a special needs child driving themselves down Main Street in Newark, and neither has anyone else in any community anywhere. They, and often their families, are hidden citizens. We predict that very soon that will change in Newark, and then across Delaware, and then who knows. But time is of the essence because there is a baby being born right now who could use this today. That is the race we are in, so back to work."
Agrawal, who directs the UD robotics laboratory, received his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1990 from Stanford University, where he was a research assistant in the university's robotics laboratory. He taught and conducted research at Ohio University from 1990 until 1996, when he joined the UD faculty. He received his bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and his master's degree from Ohio State University.
Galloway, who directs the UD Infant Motor Behavior Laboratory, received his doctorate in physiological sciences from the University of Arizona in 1998 and joined the UD faculty in 2000. He received bachelor's degrees in exercise science and biology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1987 and in physical therapy from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989.
Providing important technical support to the project is Ji-Chul Ryu, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with expertise in the planning and control of mobile robots.
The UD Early Learning Center is a focal point for interdisciplinary research on early learning and development, prevention, intervention and education. It provides exemplary infant, toddler, preschool and kindergarten care to a diverse population of approximately 180 children, specifically targeting children with risk factors including poverty, foster care and disabilities. ELC is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a recognition awarded to only 5-7 percent of all child care centers nationwide. The center, which is part of the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy, received the Governor's Award of Excellence in Early Care and Education in 2006.
Article by Neil Thomas
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson
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