CardioVR-ReTone—Robotic Exoskeleton for Upper Limb Rehabilitation following Open Heart Surgery: Design, Modelling, and Control

Abstract

Following cardiac surgery, patients experience difficulties with the rehabilitation process, often finding it difficult, and therefore lack the motivation for rehabilitation activities. As the number of people aged 65 and over will rise by 207 percent globally by 2050, the need for cardiac rehabilitation will significantly increase, as this is the main population to experience heart problems. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a new robotic exoskeleton concept with 12 DoFs (6 DoFs on each arm), with a symmetrical structure for the upper limbs, to be used in the early rehabilitation of cardiac patients after open-heart surgery. The electromechanical design (geometric, kinematic, and dynamic model), the control architecture, and the VR-based operating module of the robotic exoskeleton are presented. To solve the problem of the high degree of complexity regarding the CardioVR-ReTone kinematic and dynamic model, the iterative algorithm, kinetic energy, and generalized forces were used. The results serve as a complete model of the exoskeleton, from a kinematic and dynamic point of view as well as to the selection of the electric motors, control system, and VR motivation model. The validation of the concept was achieved by evaluating the exoskeleton structure from an ergonomic point of view, emphasizing the movements that will be part of the cardiac rehabilitation.

Home-Based Robotic Upper Limbs Cardiac Telerehabilitation System

“…In this paper, we discussed the design and the preliminary implementation of a new home-based cardiac telerehabilitation system enhanced by a robotic and Virtual Reality (VR) systems—called RoboTeleRehab. This work was based on our earlier efforts highlighted within the references [ 1 , 2 ], and it represents the expansion of cardiac patients’ assisted rehabilitation from specialist facilities and hospitals to home-based centers.…”

“…Patients with heart failure who participated in a 12-week tele-rehabilitation HBCR program showed no significant improvement in the 6-min walk distance from CBCR at the conclusion of the program [ 38 , 39 ]. Secondarily, findings on patient contentment, quality of life, and muscle strength likewise indicated that the two groups were equivalent [ 1 ]. Participants in the CopenHeartRFA study selected between HBCR and CBCR after either atrial fibrillation ablation or heart valve surgery.…”

“…At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) facilities were closed in order to boost surge capacity and prevent COVID-19 infections among high-risk cardiovascular patients. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that postponing CR is linked to poorer rates of program enrolment, attendance, and completion [ 1 ]. The European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) has issued a structured call to action in order to keep providing the crucial components of CR [ 2 ].…”

New Product Development of a Robotic Soldering Cell Using Lean Manufacturing Methodology

“…Cobots have been used before, but in industries related to manufacturing [8][9][10][11], medical sector [12][13][14][15] or even in domains such as cognitive architectures [16][17][18]. The problem of integrating cobots into the soldering process was not studied yet.…”

Study of exoskeletons for upper limb rehabilitation

“…This section presents the state of the art of rigid exoskeletons. CardioVR-ReTone [40] is a good example of this, which consists on two serial robotic arms, each with six Degrees Of Freedom (DOFs), and with mirrored joints (Fig. 2.9).…”