IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2016 - 66

system via a universal serial bus (USB) interface. The aluminum connector (model DBPC 102 A053-13, Fischer
Connectors SA) and cable were chosen to be compliant
with safety requirements in terms of material and cable
length (20 cm for avoiding strangulation).
Three shapes were chosen for the kit of four sensorized
toys based on the type of grasp (palmar or digital) and hand
action (unimanual or bimanual):
● mouse-toy: a cylindrical pressure chamber equipped with a
pressure sensor and LEDs inside and two small ears with
an embedded force sensor and an LED
● U-toy: a horseshoe composed of two cylindrical pressure
chambers with an embedded pressure sensor and LEDs
● large ring-a toroidal pressure chamber embedded with
pressure sensors and LEDs inside
● small ring-a toroidal pressure chamber with a smaller
diameter and cross section (for younger babies) embedded
with LEDs to attract infants' attention.
Two wireless bracelets and a wireless chest strap (sensor
unit size 25 # 14 mm) with embedded wireless magnetoinertial measurement units (wIMUs) were designed to
measure the infant's postural movements. The
wIMU integrates a sixThe CTA application is a
axis geomagnetic and
accelerometer module
standalone application
and a three-axis gyroscope to provide a reliable
exclusively used by
drift-free three-dimensional (3-D) orientation
the clinicians.
estimation, a microcontroller (ARM Cortex M3
32 b) with embedded wireless transceiver (STM32W108),
and a battery power management unit. The final platform
and the kit of sensorized toys are shown in Figures 1
and 2, respectively.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 2. The CareToy kit of toys: (a) large ring, (b) small ring, (c)
mouse-toy, and (d) U-Toy. The rings encourage a (unimanual or
bimanual) palmar grasp, the (d) U-Toy induces a bimanual palmar
grasp on each side of the toy, and the mouse-toy promotes a palmar
grasp on the cylinder and a pincer grasp on the two small petals.
(Photo courtesy of The BioRobotics Institute.)

Software Modules
The telerehabilitation concept comprises networked computer
systems arranged in client-server architecture and three taskspecific software modules: CareToy Administrator (CTA),
CareToy Server (CTS), and CareToy Home (CTH). The modules have been developed using the cross-platform Qt
(C/C++) software framework to ensure flexibility of deployment and portability. The information exchange between the
clinical site and the remote system is handled by these modules, as illustrated in Figure 3, and it follows a store-and-forward approach. Therefore, programming of the training scenarios is independent of the system's use, and raw sensor data
acquired throughout training sessions can be transformed into
meaningful information before visualization.
The CTA application is a standalone application exclusively used by the clinicians. It contains three main functionalities: 1) programming of the system's behavior in terms
of training scenarios, 2) remote management of patientrelated data residing in the central server, and 3) visualization of obtained data for a close inspection and evaluation
of the progress of each infant. Part of the application

Central Server

Clinical
Workstation

CTS

1
5

2

Home
Workstation

4

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

B

E
F

D

A

3
CTH

CTA

Figure 3. The telerehabilitation workflow: 1) programming and management of training scenarios, 2) download of training scenarios,
3) execution and data acquisition, 4) compression and upload of the data, and 5) evaluation of obtained training session results.
(Images courtesy of The BioRobotics Institute.)

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december 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2016
