Abstract
Children with cerebral palsy (CP) face significant motor impairments in both their upper and lower limbs, severely limiting their ability to perform daily activities. Robotic exoskeletons have emerged as a promising tool to support rehabilitation and enhance motor functions in this population. In this paper, we present two robotic systems, one for enhancing gait parameters and the other one for improving the overall balance in children with CP. It is hypothesized that the robot-assisted gait training will improve spatio-temporal gait parameters and robotic perturbation-based training will improve overall balance (static, dynamic, and functional/ stural) and proprioception in CP children. Through our continuing research, we have developed a new hybrid active-passive mechanism-based GEAR (Gait Exoskeleton-Assisted Rehabilitation) robot to achieve a close-to-transparent design to provide unconstrained natural walking on a treadmill. We have also developed a Robotic Perturbation System (RPS) to train Children with CP. We have carried out initial clinical trials using both these robotic systems with CP Children and have observed significant results with effect sizes of more than 20%.