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TherapyBot, Software Tool To Support Rehabilitation Therapies in Children with Cerebral Palsy using Mobile Robots and Mobile Devices
TherapyBot is a system composed of a mobile app for Android devices and LegoEV3 robots that serves as support in rehabilitation therapies for children with cerebral palsy (levels I to V in MACS scale) is developed. Mainly it seeks to motivate children through play and technology so that they can perform the therapies and find them friendlier. Four games with different levels of difficulty were implemented: CrashCar, PaintBot, Brazo móvil and Laberinto, which aim to strengthen the concepts of causality, laterality, inhibition and problem resolution respectively.
For this purpose, a friendly graphical user interface was implemented and two kinds of robots: a mobile arm and differential robot were designed. A local database in order to have a record of therapists and patients with their progress during therapy sessions was also implemented. As to the interaction of the user with the application, as well as the touch interface of the android device, there is the option of working with an external interface that is composed of special switches for disability. Actually, TherapyBot is a registered software legally recognized by the Interior Ministry of Colombia. This document can be downloaded here.
TherapyBot uses two different robots and custom hardware to guarantee the user input. The first robot is a tracked robot equipped with different sensors to implement different games used as rehabilitation therapies. The second robot is an arm, which is used to pickup objects in another rehabilitation therapy.
Also, some patients have high mobility constraints in their upper limps. This situation is minimized using custom hardware as depicted in the Figure at left. Where, two industrial push buttons are used to receive the user input in different rehabilitation therapies.
At the very beginning, TherapyBot requires registered users, then therapist are log in as shown in Figures at right. The following steps are considered:
1. User name and password is requested for registered users.
2. In case of new users, basic information is requested to therapists which are described as follows: Names, Surnames, Email, Password, Institution.
3. Then, TherapyBot allows users selecting a patient.
All this information is stored locally in a non-SQL database, which can be exported at any moment to therapists email.
Once the patient is selected, a list of games can be observed, and therapists start one of them depending on the therapists rehabilitation therapy schedule. These games are:
1. CrashCar.
2. PaintBot.
3. Mobile Arm.
4. Maze.
All these games are played with a robot built using the Lego Mind-storm EV3. Then, to connect with the robot, TherapyBot uses Bluetooth. In the image at left is shown the user interface to pair the devices. Once paired, the game can be initiated. A resumed description is presented as follows:
1. CrashCar, it is a game oriented to causality. Children are encouraged to learn the relationship between cause and effect. Then using the tracked robot, children try to shoot down the object in front of the robot.
2. PaintBot, this game is focused on inhibition. The arm robot can paint three different geometric figures, it does this job if and only if patients press the touch screen or the buttons continuously.
3. Mobile Arm, this game is focused on laterality. Here the arm robot moves to right or to left depending on the instruction shown in the bottom of the GUI.
4. Maze, it is a game oriented to problem solving. In this case the tracked mobile robot is driven by patients in a maze. The mobile robot can be moved forwards, backwards, to left and to right. Patients use these commands to get out of maze.
At the end of any of these games, which are tied to rehabilitation therapies, patients, parents and therapists can measure the evolution of the rehabilitation therapy quantitatively. This is done thanks TherapyBot uses GAS (Goal Attainment Scaling) methodology to quantify the evolution of each therapy.
This software was developed for therapeutic use. If you like to perform a field test, please contact me:
Prof. Bladimir Bacca Cortes Ph.D.
Address: Cra. 100, Street 13, Universidad del Valle, Melendez, Building E53, Office 2006.
Tel: +5723212100 Ext. 7656
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