New concussion study brings robots to the locker room

When Northern Arizona opens its college football season at the University of Arizona on Friday night, the Lumberjacks' sports medicine team will have a new member: a robot. VGo (pronounced vee-go) is a two-wheeled, remote-controlled, electrically powered robot developed by VGo Communications of New Hampshire that stands 4 feet upright and resembles a miniature Segway. VGo's presence signals the start of a study, conducted jointly by NAU and the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, of whether wireless telecommunication can be used to diagnose concussions in players who might be far away from a trained neurologist.