Smart Wheelchair for Babies and Tots
From: Science Illustrated - Nov/Dec 2009 - page 20

Robot-enhanced device offers mobility for children with special needs

Crawling and walking are way babies learn about their world, but children
with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and other disorders that affect mobility
miss out on this important type of independent exploration. Now, researchers
at the University of Delaware, with funding from the National Institutes of
Health and the National Science Foundation, are aiming to give those early
freewheeling experiences to special-needs kids, with the first power
wheelchair designed for children ages six months to three years. 

Until now, researchers have been cautious about offering young children too
much mobility for fear they would hurt themselves. So physical therapy
professor Cole Galloway and mechnical engineer Sunil Agrawal designed their
prototype with sensors to detect and navigate around obstacles, or let kids
bump into them safely. The second-generation model called UD2 can also give
control to an adult by a remote device. UD2 is being tested at the
university's Early Learning Center, where researchers are studying how the
enhanced mobility provided bythe chair affects kids' social behavior. 

Source:
http://www.udel.edu/PT/About%20Us/faculty/Galloway/Galloway%20Article[1].pdf

Links:
Babies Driving Robots
http://www.udel.edu/PT/About%20Us/faculty/Galloway/Babies%20Driving%20Robots[1].pdf

Cole Galloway
http://www.udel.edu/PT/About%20Us/People/galloway.html

Babies driving robots at University of Delaware
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2008/nov/robot110907.html

Babies learn to ride robots at UD
http://www.udel.edu/research/media/babiesrobots.html

Babies Driving Their Own Robots
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071109211510.htm