Robot-Assisted Video Game Helps Children with SMA Rebuild Strength

Depending on the severity, this condition can confine individuals to a wheelchair or leave them bedridden. It can also make eating and even breathing difficult, sometimes fatally so.

But a new tool has shown it can help SMA patients rebuild their strength. After just a few weeks of engaging with a video game, six children in China could stand up from a chair for the first time.

The children, aged six to 10, volunteered for a study that involved strapping a robot to their knees. The robot, weighing less than 1kg (nearly 2lbs), did not help them to move – instead, it resisted them. When they kicked, the robot made it a little harder.

This forced their muscles and nerves to work together, building muscle mass and strength.