Assistance in Motion is a start-up developing the WeeBot, a hands-free robotic mobility device that infants as young as six months of age can learn to drive. The WeeBot is designed to meet the desires of parents and therapists to provide the ability for very young children with motor limitations to move independently. Children learn a great deal about their physical and social environments when they begin to crawl and walk. Delayed mobility in infancy, due to conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and Down syndrome, limits opportunities to explore the world and interact with others. The lack of movement can result in secondary disabilities that impact cognitive, language, and social development, affecting quality of life. The WeeBot could reduce these secondary disabilities by providing mobility to children with disabilities at the same age that typically developing children begin to move independently. The WeeBot uses a unique weight-shift control method that is well-supported by years of research with infants at Ithaca College. The WeeBot moves as children lean toward objects and people of interest. This intuitive control method has not been implemented in any other pediatric mobility devices.
Carole Dennis is Professor Emerita in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Ithaca College, where she served as chair and graduate chair, and taught courses in pediatric occupational therapy, assistive technology, and research methods. Before working in higher education, she was a clinician for 15 years, specializing in early intervention for infants and toddlers with disability or developmental delay.
Sharon Stansfield is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Ithaca College. She earned her Ph.D. in robotics from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to working at Ithaca College, she was a senior member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. Her research is focused on robotics and virtual reality applications in rehabilitation and therapy.
Chuck Schwerin is a serial entrepreneur, co-founding four start-ups, who previously served as Managing Director of Business Services for Tompkins County Area Development in Ithaca. He earned his MA in Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University and has extensive experience advising small businesses. He has taught Entrepreneurship at Binghamton University and facilitated Pre-Seed workshops at Binghamton and Cornell Universities
