Conventional rehabilitation after stroke, consisting in one-to-one practice
with the therapist, is labor-intensive and subjective. Furthermore, there is
evidence that increasing training would benefit the motor function of stroke
survivors, though the available resources do not allow it. Training with
dedicated robotic devices promises to address these problems and to promote
motivation through therapeutic games. The goal of this project is to
develop a simple robotic system to assist rehabilitation that could easily be
integrated in existing hospital environments and rehabilitation centers. A
study was first carried out to analyze the kinematics of hand movements
while performing representative activities of daily living. Results showed
that movements were confined to one plane so can be trained using a robot
with less degrees-of-freedom (DOF). Hence ReachMAN, a compact 3 DOF
robot based on an endpoint based approach, was developed to train reaching,
forearm pronosupination and grasping, independently or simultaneously.
ReachMAN's exercises were developed using games based on software
thereby facilitating active participation from patients. Visual, haptic and
performance feedback were provided to increase motivation. Tuneable levels
of difficulty were provided to suit patient's ability. A pilot study with three
subjects was first conducted to evaluate the potential use of ReachMAN as
a rehabilitation tool and to determine suitable settings for training. Following
positive results from a pilot study, a clinical study was initiated to
investigate the effect of rehabilitation using ReachMAN. Preliminary results
of 6 subjects show an increase in patients upper limb motor activity, range
of movements, smoothness and reduction in movement duration. Subjects
reported to be motivated with the robot training and felt that the robot
helped in their recovery. The results of this thesis suggest that a compact
and simple robot such as ReachMAN can be used to enhance recovery in
sub-acute stroke patients
