## Results
### Robotic Protocols for Upper Limb Assessment  
In this section, we reviewed how robotic devices have been used for the functional evaluation of upper limbs performance, improving and extending the explanatory power of the already mentioned clinical scales. As it is well known, clinical scales performed by therapists are the accepted method for evaluating the motor performance of patients. But, although they are widely used in the clinical setting, they are operator-dependent, have little sensitivity to detect small changes in improvement over time and are time-consuming to apply [65]. In contrast, the possibility of a quantitative and reliable description of motor performance is intrinsic in the design, the control, and the actual usage of robotic devices. As a consequence, the robotic assessment of performance can provide high temporal and spatial resolution measurements that allow recording position, velocities and forces of the joints and obtain from them kinematic, kinetic and dynamic parameters [66]. In particular, the following studies have shown that robotic devices can provide quantitative, accurate, repeatable and sensitive assessment. Robotic assessment means the evaluation of specific measurements (kinematics, RoM: Range of Motion, smoothness) through dedicated assessment tasks, before, possibly during, and after the rehabilitation treatment in order to estimate the effectiveness of robotic rehabilitation. Specifically, robotic evaluation could reduce assessment time, detect even small changes, thus representing a powerful tool for physiotherapists to capture delays in motor development and track children's progress over time [32]. These quantitative measures can be added to clinical scales to help the physiotherapist to draw up a more complete clinical picture of the patients and modify the clinical protocol based on their needs.  
In some of the reviewed studies, robotic devices have been applied to extract kinematic and dynamic measurements directly from the data collected by the robot before, during and after the rehabilitation training; conversely, in some other studies the robot had been specifically designed as a tool for the assessment and was used to measure upper limb sensorimotor functions, independently from the training.  
More specifically, in the first group, the _NJIT-RAVR_ has been used to evaluate the hand movement speed, movement duration, smoothness and range of motion [67; 68; 69]; the _WristBot_ and the _reHaptic Handle_ have been used to quantify the maximum range of motion of the wrist [49; 70; 71]; the _InMotion2_ and _REAPlan_ devices have been used to evaluate the straightness, speed and smoothness of trajectories in specific reaching activities [15; 24]; and additionally, _InMotion2_ has also been used in a multi-joint planar task requiring coordination of the shoulder and elbow joint in order to assess the upper limb motor performance after injections of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) in children with hemiplegia due to CP or ABI [64]. Moreover, the _MyPam_ robot has been used to evaluate motor performance in reaching tasks, demonstrating neurological enhancement through maintaining and improving motor skills in the washout period after robotic training in children with CP [50].  
Conversely, the _KINARM_ robot is a device specifically designed as a robotic tool for the assessment. This device allowed to quantify position sense and kinesthesia [72] in hemiparetic children with perinatal stroke showing how the location of neurological damage differently defines proprioceptive deficits [73]. Additionally, [PERSON] et al. used this device to quantify bilateral motor impairments in hemiparetic children with unilateral perinatal stroke; they have confirmed that an unilateral injury can lead to bilateral motor disabilities, suggesting to rehabilitate both controlateral and ipsilateral limb [74].