Quantitative motor assessment of upperlimb after unilateral stroke: A preliminary feasibility study with H-Man, a planar robot

Self-Paced Reaching after Stroke: A Quantitative Assessment of Longitudinal and Directional Sensitivity Using the H-Man Planar Robot for Upper Limb Neurorehabilitation

“…H-Man, can provide forces of up to 30 N at the end-effector (handle) in any specified direction in a planar workspace to assist or resist the motion of the user, and can be easily built using off the shelf components. For further information, the reader is referred to Campolo et al (2014) for a detailed description and the characteristic parameters of H-Man, along with references to works in which H-Man has been studied with control and stroke participants (Campolo et al, 2014; Hussain et al, 2015a,b). …”

“…At Nanyang Technological University (NTU) we have designed a novel low-cost, planar, table-top robot for decentralized neurorehabilitation (hereafter called H-Man) (Campolo et al, 2014; Hussain et al, 2015a). It can benefit participants with limited access to a therapist for rehabilitation, and with properly validated assessment protocols, can provide continuous updates about motor progress to the patient, their caregivers, and the therapy team.…”

Work with me, not for me: Relationship between robotic assistance and performance in subacute and chronic stroke patients

“…This was verified by Tukey's HSD test that indicated that movements were smoother for the lowest assistance level (SAL(level 1) ¼ À2.72 AE 0.41) compared to all other assistance levels (SAL (level 2) ¼ À2. 45 between all other levels were not found to be significant (all p's > 0.05). There was also a significant main effect of impairment group on T norm (F(1,50) ¼ 42.12, p < 0.001), such that the mildly impaired group exhibited shorter total movement times than the moderately to highly impaired group (T norm (FMA !…”

“…The experimental apparatus used for the study is the rehabilitation robot H-Man 40 (Figure 1): a compact planar, upper extremity robot designed for the use in rehabilitation settings and for human motor control experiments in stroke and neurologically healthy participants. 44,45 The participant was seated in a height-adjustable chair in front of H-Man that was placed on a fixed table, such that the center of the sternum was aligned with the handle of the H-Man robot and the elbow bent at 90 . A display was used to provide visual feedback and the representation of the task.…”

“…This was verified by Tukey's HSD test that indicated that movements were smoother for the lowest assistance level (SAL(level 1) ¼ À2.72 AE 0.41) compared to all other assistance levels (SAL (level 2) ¼ À2. 45 Normalized total time (T norm ) values dependent on assistance level and group are shown in Figure 3. In general, movements were completed in a shorter time period as assistance level increased, F(4,50) ¼ 6.46, p < 0.001.…”