"Rehab Robots" Help Stroke Patients Recover

Assistive robotic devices are being designed by student teams to help stroke and spinal cord injury survivors with their rehabilitation.

Researchers and student design teams at the University of Texas (UT, Austin, USA) and Rice University (Houston, TX, USA) are constructing prototypes of assistive robotic devices that can perform everyday tasks for patients recovering from diseases affecting their motor skills, as well giving the patients an exercise work-out in the process. The prototype robots are armed with a scissor-like claw that can perform a variety of functions, including moving a glass of water or lifting a pen off the floor; to manipulate the remote-controlled robots, the patients use an exoskeleton, which is attached to one of their arms. Caregivers can gradually increase the range of motion and amount of exertion required by patients to operate the devices, in order to help them build endurance. Some of the robots have been outfitted with a video camera so they can be dispatched to other rooms of a house to retrieve items. The prototypes are equipped with lift mechanisms designed to raise the grabber claw to the height of a table for easy access to glasses, utensils, and dishes, with a maximum height of about 80 centimeters.

Because many patients would have a hard time changing the batteries that power the robots, the UT Austin team has built its prototype so it can dock with a charger that is already plugged into a wall outlet. The Rice prototype, on the other hand, rolls on treads, but is less than 50 centimeters tall and about 45 x 45 centimeters at the base. Once the projects are completed, tests will be organized to see how well these prototypes work on patients in a real world environment.

"Our goal is to motivate people with neurological diseases to continue their rehab at home," said one of the student team coaches, Catherine Ambrose, Ph.D., an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at The University of Texas Medical School (Houston, USA). "We're looking at these devices as motivational tools."

The project is the brainchild of Prof. Ambrose and Prof. Lex Frieden, Ph.D., a professor of health informatics and physical medicine and rehabilitation in the Laboratory of Adaptive Technologies at the University of Texas Health Science Center (Houston, USA).

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University of Texas Austin
Rice University
University of Texas Health Science Center