Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of serious physical disability in childhood, and the devices envisioned for this project are meant to offer long-term daily assistance for those living with it.

However, traditional robots are rigid and not comfortable on the human body. Enabled by a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, this project is taking the novel approach of building devices from soft textiles, which will also facilitate more natural limb functioning.

"Hard materials don't interact well with humans," said Jonathan Realmuto, UCR assistant professor of mechanical engineering and project lead. "What we're going for by using materials like nylon and elastic are essentially robotic garments."

These garments will contain sealed, airtight regions that can inflate, making them temporarily rigid, and providing the force for movement.

"Let's say you want to flex the elbow for a bicep curl. We can inject air into specially designed bladders embedded in the fabric that would propel the arm forward," Realmuto said.

The project will focus not only on constructing the robot, but also on developing the algorithms that teach the machine to predict movements the wearer wants to execute.