Background: Continued and frequent use of the affected arm can result in increased function after stroke. However, long-term access to therapy is often limited, and home exercise compliance is low. While rehabilitation gaming is becoming increasingly prevalent, concerns about therapeutic method, safety, and usability for independent home use remain largely unaddressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot
June 2013
The most common injuries in healthcare are related to transfers. The Strong Arm system assists caregivers in providing fully dependent transfers from an electric power wheelchair to a bed, shower bench, toilet or other surface. However, this system currently controlled by buttons could be more successful with a more intuitive method during use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbnormal kinematics and the use of compensation strategies during training limit functional improvement from therapy. The Kinect is a low cost ($100) sensor that does not require any markers to be placed on the user. Integration of this sensor into currently used therapy systems can provide feedback about the user's movement quality, and the use of compensatory strategies to complete tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
August 2012
In this study, a robotic orthotic device with one degree of freedom was used for assessment of individuals with chronic stroke and resultant hemiparesis. The specific aim was to investigate the effect of visual feedback distortion on range of motion (ROM) at the elbow and wrist joints as measured by the Arm IntelliStretch platform from Rehabtek LLC. It was hypothesized that introducing visual feedback distortion in increments under the just noticeable difference of two degrees would directly correspond to an increase in ROM at both the wrist and elbow joints when compared to ROM measured by the IntelliStretch system without visual feedback distortion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
June 2012
Many robotic systems have been developed to provide assistance to individuals with disabilities. Most of these systems require the individual to interact with the robot via a joystick or keypad, though some utilize techniques such as speech recognition or selection of objects with a laser pointer. In this paper, we describe a prototype system using a novel method of interaction with an assistive robot.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
April 2010
Assistive robots for persons with physical limitations need to interact with humans in a manner that is safe to the user and the environment. Early work in this field centered on task specific robots. Recent work has focused on the use of the MANUS ARM and the development of different interfaces.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Med Rehabil Clin N Am
February 2010
This review explores recent trends in the development and evaluation of assistive robotic arms, both prosthetic and externally mounted. Evaluations have been organized according to the CATOR taxonomy of assistive device outcomes, which takes into consideration device effectiveness, social significance, and impact on subjective well-being. Questions that have informed the review include: (1) Are robotic arms being comprehensively evaluated along axes of the CATOR taxonomy? (2) Are definitions of effectiveness in accordance with the priorities of users? (3) What gaps in robotic arm evaluation exist, and how might these best be addressed? (4) What further advances can be expected in the next 15 years? Results highlight the need for increased standardization of evaluation methods, increased emphasis on the social significance (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng
December 2009
Effective clinical trials for neuroprotective interventions for Parkinson's disease (PD) require a way to quantify an individual's motor symptoms and analyze the change in these symptoms over time. Clinical scales provide a global picture of function but cannot precisely measure specific aspects of motor control. We have used commercially available sensors to create a protocol called Advanced Sensing for Assessment of Parkinson's disease (ASAP) to obtain a quantitative and reliable measure of motor impairment in early to moderate PD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRobotic devices for therapy have the potential to enable intensive, fully customized home rehabilitation over extended periods for individuals with stroke and traumatic brain injury, thus empowering them to maximize their functional recovery. For robotic rehabilitation to be most effective, systems must have the capacity to assign performance goals to the user and to increment those goals to encourage performance improvement. Otherwise, individuals may plateau at an artificially low level of function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobally, the number of people older than 65 years is anticipated to double between 1997 and 2025, while at the same time the number of people with disabilities is growing at a similar rate, which makes technical advances and social policies critical to attain, prolong, and preserve quality of life. Recent advancements in technology, including computation, robotics, machine learning, communication, and miniaturization of sensors have been used primarily in manufacturing, military, space exploration, and entertainment. However, few efforts have been made to utilize these technologies to enhance the quality of life of people with disabilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRobotic therapy offers a means of enhancing rehabilitation for individuals with chronic stroke or traumatic brain injury. The present research targets members of this population who demonstrate learned nonuse, a tendency to use affected limbs below the level of the individual's true capability. These individuals may not strive for difficult goals in therapy, which ultimately hampers their progress and the outcome of rehabilitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough the use of robotic devices to address neuromuscular rehabilitative goals represents a promising technological advance in medical care, the large number of systems being developed and varying levels of clinical study of the devices make it difficult to follow and interpret the results in this new field. This article is a review of the current state-of-the-art in robotic applications in poststroke therapy for the upper extremity, written specifically to help clinicians determine the differences between various systems. We concentrate primarily on systems that have been tested clinically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: It is common for individuals with chronic disabilities to continue using the compensatory movement coordination due to entrenched habits, increased perception of task difficulty, or personality variables such as low self-efficacy or a fear of failure. Following our previous work using feedback distortion in a virtual rehabilitation environment to increase strength and range of motion, we address the use of visual feedback distortion environment to alter movement coordination patterns.
Methods: Fifty-one able-bodied subjects participated in the study.
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng
March 2005
Imperceptible visual distortion, in the form of a disguised progression of performance goals, may be a helpful addition to rehabilitation after stroke and other brain injuries. This paper describes work that has been done to lay the groundwork for testing this hypothesis. We have constructed and validated an experimental environment that provides controllable visual distortion and allows precise force and position measurements.
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