Hawe and lab members complete training on Kinarm Robot

Rachel Hawe, PhD, assistant professor of kinesiology and director of the NeuroRehabilitation Across the Lifespan Laboratory (NeuRAL), and NeuRAL lab members recently completed three days of training on the Kinarm Robot, led remotely by one of the co-founders of the company that builds the device. The Kinarm is a robotic device where individuals move their arms to interact with virtual objects displayed on a screen to measure motor, sensory, and cognitive performance. During the training, lab members received an overview of what the Kinarm can do and learned how to set up research participants, troubleshoot eye tracking, and program custom tasks.

Additionally, this training will help guide NeuRAL members in their upcoming research study “Examining Visual Strategies in Motor Planning and Execution in Children with Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy,” funded by the American Physical Therapy Association Pediatrics Section. The team is currently preparing to start collecting data for the project.

Participants in the training included School of Kinesiology undergraduate honors students Ellie Kohl and Danielle Wang, School of Kinesiology undergraduate student Cole Paxton, and MS student Ally Richardson, all of whom are involved in the Children with Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy project. A few members from the Human Sensorimotor Control (HSC) lab also joined the training.