“Gabarello v.1.0” and “Gabarello v.2.0”: Development of motivating rehabilitation games for robot-assisted locomotion therapy in childhood

Abstract

Virtual rehabilitation games have the potential to increase children’s motivation during robot-assisted locomotion therapy. Based on this approach, two target-group specific rehabilitation games were developed. „Gabarello v.1.0“ and „Gabarello v.2.0“ are controlled by the patient’s motion in Hocoma’s gait-driven orthosis Lokomat®, which provides biofeedback values of the patient’s physical performance. These measurements are exploited to derive video game playability for the patient in real time. “Gabarello v.2.0” is connected to therapy devices through a specific middleware (“RehabConnex”). This set-up allows the extension of the game environment through the additional use of the sensor glove “PITS” (Institute of Neuroinformatics, ETH Zurich/University of Zurich) to complete a second task, while maintaining the game’s key features. Both rehabilitation games turn therapy into a stimulating, self-motivated, fun experience, supporting both patients and therapists. This explorative approach might be used as guideline for future rehabilitation game developments.