Serious Games for the Pediatric Anklebot

The goal of Serious Games (SGs) in motor therapy has been established since the early studies with the MIT-Manus robot. It is important to keep the patient engaged during sensorimotor rehabilitation. Here we describe the development of three SGs, namely the Shipwreck, the Race for Noah´s Ark, and Soccer 2014. The games are intended to be used with the Pediatric Anklebot and provide an interactive environment to the assist-as-needed robotic therapy for children with Cerebral Palsy ages 5 to 8. As with the games developed for the MIT-Manus robot, the SGs are visually-guided, visually-evoked, easy to play with, and promote training of the impaired ankle in dorsi-plantar flexion and inversion-eversion. The games´ goal is to reinforce meaningful play and challenge. We have recently initiated clinical testing employing these games and expect to determine if motor learning model offers a meaningful approach to lower extremity rehabilitation efforts.