SCH: INT: Collaborative Research: Smart Wearable Systems to Support and Measure Movement in Children With and Without Mobility Impairments

该项目的重点是开发可穿戴技术，以测量和帮助行动不便儿童的上肢活动能力。由于早期活动障碍可能会对心理和身体发育产生长期影响，因此通过辅助技术帮助儿童克服这些障碍，并能够在较长一段时间内衡量日常活动干预的效果是很重要的。然而，大多数辅助和传感技术都很笨重，而且不舒服。该项目团队将开发外观和手感都像日常服装的柔软、低调的传感和执行技术。可穿戴系统将在一组3-12岁的儿童和他们的照顾者中开发和评估。这项工作将有助于开发能够理解和影响干预行动障碍的技术，并为美国蓬勃发展的智能纺织品和服装业做出贡献。该方法依赖于缝合的、基于纺织品的传感以及软性充气结构和形状记忆纤维的混合方法来帮助肢体运动。将开发基于学习的活动识别算法，该算法对身体形状和服装运动误差的差异具有健壮性。有活动障碍的儿童进行的非典型运动将被识别，从而能够评估诸如活动范围等临床指标。该系统的执行部件使用柔软的气动结构来提供反重力(升力)，并使用形状记忆合金(SMA)弹簧式执行器来提供方向控制。该系统将分两个阶段开发：首先，将使用典型发育儿童开发传感部件和被动升力(充气外展支持)，并在为期4周的家庭试验中对15名行动不便的儿童进行测试。在为期一年的时间里，将与5-10个行动不便儿童家庭合作开发和部署主动驱动系统。将评估这两种系统对用户上肢活动的影响，以及系统的可用性和社会接受性。

This project focuses on the development of wearable technologies to measure and assist upper-limb mobility in children with mobility impairments. Because mobility impairments in early life can have long-term effects on psychological as well as physical development, it is important both to help children overcome these impairments through assistive technologies and to be able to measure the effect of interventions in everyday movements over long periods of time. However, most assistive and sensing technologies are bulky and uncomfortable. The project team will develop soft, low-profile sensing and actuating technologies that look and feel like everyday clothing. The wearable systems will be developed and evaluated with a group of 3-12 year old children and their caregivers. This work will contribute to the development of technologies that enable understanding and effects of interventions on mobility impairments, and contribute to the burgeoning smart textiles and clothing industry in the USA. The approach relies on stitched, textile-based sensing and a hybrid approach of soft inflatable structures and shape-memory fibers to assist limb movements. Learning based activity recognition algorithms will be developed that are robust to differences in body shape and garment-movement error. The atypical movements performed by children with mobility impairments will be recognized, enabling assessment of clinical indicators like range of movement. The actuating component of the proposed system uses soft pneumatic structures to provide counter-gravitational (lift) forces, and Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) spring-type actuators to provide directional control. The system will be developed in two phases: initially, the sensing component and the passive lift (inflatable abduction support) will be developed using typically-developing children, and tested in 4-week in-home trials with 15 children with mobility impairments. The active actuated system will be developed and deployed in collaboration with 5-10 families with children with mobility impairments over a period of one year. The effects of both systems on user's upper-limb mobility as well as the usability and social acceptability of the systems will be evaluated.