PFI-TT: A Robotic Rehabilitation System for Hand Therapy after a Stroke

创新技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的潜在更广泛影响是改善500多万中风患者的生活质量，他们可能受益于拟议的创新，即提供手部物理治疗的机器人系统。如果成功，这项技术将解决中风康复中最关键和最具挑战性的问题之一，即手部康复。预计这种机器人手物理治疗系统可能导致更高的功能和运动技能的结果和更短的住院时间。这项工作的主要结果不仅有可能改善中风患者的康复结果，也有可能改善上肢神经和肌肉骨骼损伤患者的康复结果。间接地，拟议的创新有望提高职业技能，防止中风后的相应伤害。在具有商业和商业化经验的人员的指导下，并专注于开发商业化计划，该项目为在将基础研究转化为部署技术的过程中教育团队创造了一个独特的机会。这个项目的成功完成将培养下一代的创新者和商业领袖。执行旨在扩大参与和外联的活动有助于提高国家影响。该项目解决了当前治疗方案的一个关键缺陷，即未能使中风患者获得有意义的康复，从而导致严重的残疾，特别是手部运动障碍。虽然机器人技术是一种很有前途的技术，可以提供有效的治疗，但目前还没有机器人系统可以充分恢复病人的整个手部运动。这个PFI团队将原型和翻译一个新颖的机器人系统，该系统具有独特的能力，可以提供精确的辅助，以调用手部功能的恢复。外骨骼还将在治疗过程中收集高分辨率的运动和努力数据，为患者和治疗师提供在线和总结反馈。该项目将推进现有的“实验室原型”到“现场原型”，将转化为临床测试，使用控制架构：物理连接到受试者和图形用户界面。这些活动的成功完成可能会导致中风后恢复运动能力的治疗方案的实施。重要的是，该项目还将阐明适当的指标、价值主张和监管/商业化路径，以加速手治疗机器人系统向最终用户的转化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The potential broader impact of the Partnerships for Innovation-Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to improve the quality of life of more than five million stroke patients who may benefit from the proposed innovation, a robotic system for delivering hand physical therapy. If successful the technology will address one of the most critical and challenging problems in stroke rehabilitation, which is the hand rehabilitation. It is expected that this robotic hand physical therapy system may result in higher functional and motor skills outcomes and shorter lengths of hospital stays. The major outcomes of this work hold potential to improve the rehabilitation outcomes of not only stroke patients but also those with upper extremity neurological and musculoskeletal impairments. Indirectly, the proposed innovation is expected to improve vocational skills and prevent the consequential injuries after a stroke. With mentoring from personnel with business and commercialization experience and the focus on developing a commercialization plan, this project creates a unique opportunity for educating the team in the process of translating basic research into deployed technology. Successful completion of this project will train the next generation of innovators and business leaders. Execution of activities toward broadening participation and outreach contributes to national impact.This project tackles a critical shortcoming of the current treatment options, which is failure to cause meaningful recovery for stroke patients resulting in severe disabilities, especially in hand movement. While robotics is a promising technology for delivering effective therapies, currently there is no robotic system that can sufficiently recover a patient’s full hand movement. This PFI team will prototype and translate a novel robotic system with a unique ability to provide precise assistance to invoke recovery of hand function. The exoskeleton will also collect high-resolution motion and effort data during therapy to provide online and summary feedback to the patients and the therapists. The project will advance the existing ‘lab prototype’ to a ‘field prototype’ that will translate into clinical testing using a control architecture: physical attachment to the subject and a graphical user interface. Successful completion of these activities may lead to implementation of therapeutic protocols that restore movement capabilities after stroke. Importantly, the project will also elucidate appropriate metrics, value proposition, and regulatory/commercialization paths to accelerate translation of the hand therapy robotic system to the end user.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.