A Review of Assistive Robotic Exoskeletons and Mobility Disorders in Children to Establish Requirements of Such Devices for Paediatric Population

There has been growing interest in robotic exoskeletons over the past two decades, and the use of robotic exoskeletons has increased with the development of technology and wider awareness of their benefits. Although there have been numerous studies in the area of robotic exoskeletons, the research appears to have neglected paediatric population end users. Possible reasons behind this could be the continuous growth of children which affects the requirements of the system and also relatively fewer number of immobilized subjects in the paediatric population compared to adult population. In this paper, firstly a review of state of the art of assistive robotic exoskeletons highlighting the lack of research for paediatric population is presented. Secondly, different mobility disorders in children and system requirements of an assistive robotic exoskeleton for these disorders are addressed.