A Telepresence System for Therapist-in-the-Loop Training for Elbow Joint Rehabilitation

Abstract

This paper proposes a new robotic rehabilitation training platform that is motivated by the requirement for adjusting the training strategy and intensity in a patient-specific manner. The platform is implemented for tele-rehabilitation and is comprised of a haptic device operated by therapists, a lightweight exoskeleton worn by patients and a visually shared model. Through the visually shared model, the motion of the therapist and patient are measured and mapped to the motion of the corresponding object. Thus, the force generated by the therapist can be transferred to the patient for delivering training, while real-time force feedback with high transparency can be provided to the therapist so they know the amount of force being applied to patients in real time. In particular, both assistive therapy in the early stages and resistive therapy in the later stages of stroke can be performed. The home-use exoskeleton device is specifically designed to be light-weight and compliant for safety. The patient-exoskeleton and therapist-haptic interaction performance is evaluated by observing the muscle activities and interaction force. Two volunteers were requested to imitate the process of the therapist-in-the-loop training to evaluate the proposed platform.

EMG Model Calibration and Trajectory Tracking by Remote Rehabilitation Exoskeleton

“…Additionally, the study underscores the integration of Cartesian and electromyography (EMG) data as feedback, facilitating the inference of limb posture from EMG signals and recalibration during new exercises. In the existing literature various approaches within closely related fields of study, including works by [36][37][38][39][40][41], partially intersect with the themes presented in this work. However, the authors remain uncertain as to whether fully analogous studies have been previously published.…”

Design and Experimental Characterization of L-CADEL v2, an Assistive Device for Elbow Motion

“…However, despite the system mobility, a significant encumbrance of their bases makes them difficult to transport and use at home. Lighter design concepts presented in [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] offer solutions that can be easily stored in a relatively small space but still require a support frame for the rehabilitation exercises.…”

Tele-Rehabilitation Versus Local Rehabilitation Therapies Assisted by Robotic Devices: A Pilot Study with Patients

“…Up to now, literature has focused on comparing rehabilitation outcomes of robotic vs. in-person therapies, but there is not any knowledge of what happens when the therapist interacts physically with the patient through the robot. A few works have already presented this teleoperated modality [4][5][6], but their research was more focused on the design and control of the robotic system rather than evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of this modality compared to traditional robotic or in-person therapies. Therefore, this work addresses the objective and subjective performance implications of this novel interaction method.…”