Portable, mobile pediatric exercise unit

Problem

Pediatric neurotherapy needs to be a continuously motivating, immersive experience. Current exercise paradigms restrict movement to a small area, or if mobile, restricts body movement significantly. Both situations limit the ability of the child to interact with the environment to introduce an enriching experience necessary for recovery. The critical need is for a portable platform capable of adaptively supporting the child for increasing challenges, enable independent mobility and exploration, yet allow enough movement to interact with the environment.

Solution

The Sulzer lab at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a device that provides adjustable body weight support via overhead and/or hip height support, while still being mobile and allowing the user the access to interact with their surroundings. The device also allows the user to kneel, sit, and crawl. The device has strong versatility as a therapy tool and as a gait trainer. Unlike current at-home gait trainers, this device can provide both mobility and rehabilitation, providing partial and full bodyweight support, depending upon the patient’s needs. The device is lightweight and portable, allowing for easy transport.

Value proposition

• The training device allows vertical motion and variable support with minimal interference from the device, making it an attractive device for therapy at home, in the clinic, outdoors, and some everyday activities. Its functionality device to be used in place of currently available gait trainers on the market.
• The training device is adaptable in an unparalleled way, allowing for use in many environments by unique users. This enables functionality and versatility beyond that of other devices on the market and increases accessibility and marketability to more patients than currently available gait trainers.
• The prototype device is designed for children but is entirely adaptable for expansion of use by adult populations.

About the inventor

Dr. James Sulzer is an adjunct assistant professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, and Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University and MetroHealth Hospital Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is the father of a child with disabilities resulting from a traumatic brain injury. Dr. Sulzer’s lab focuses on developing and using technologies to help people recovery from neurological injury. His expertise is in rehabilitation robotics, gait biomechanics, wearable sensors, reflex neurophysiology, neuroimaging, and neurofeedback. He has published highly influential work on pediatric rehabilitation technology implementation, and his story has been featured in The Atlantic.