CHENNAI: Trying to make a difference in the lives of children with autism, Nimaya Robotics, the brainchild of Dr Ramya Moorthy, Srinivasa Moorthy and Subashree Krishnan recently brought to the fore a new therapy system — Suprayoga, to help and assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other intellectual disabilities. The company has joined hands with the National Institute for Empowerment of People with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) to enable the use of this system.
This technology was the research topic for Ramya’s PhD and eventually turned into a company. At Suprayoga’s launch recently, Himangshu Das, director, NIEPMD said, “In India, this is the first time that such a technology has been developed in various IITs to work around the problem areas but not on the problem itself.” Subashree Krishnan, co-founder of Nimaya Robotics, told CE, “Our model is to lend our services based on subscriptions. Right now, we have signed an MoU with NIEPMD for the children who are part of NIEPMD, and they come from underprivileged backgrounds. This technology will benefit them.”
The pilot testing was done with 60 children across five centres in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “It projected that learning in children with disabilities showed about 50 per cent improvement,” said Ramya adding that, essentially, this technology showed better results than others. Suprayoga will help children with ASD in learning to grasp information, learn hand-eye coordination and get a sense of direction. It works on the patient with autism to improve their pschyo-motor skills. Since it is a robot, it does the same function repeatedly, which a person with autism can relate to. “We will give this technology to those working with children with special needs on a subscription basis,” said Subashree.