Novel Haptics-Enabled Robotic Systems for Rehabilitation Therapy

中风是加拿大死亡和成人神经系统残疾的主要原因，约有50，000例中风病例 每年都发生，目前约有315，000名加拿大人患有中风。据估计 中风使加拿大经济每年损失近36亿美元。大约90%的中风患者 永久或长期残疾，需要在中风后尽早进行劳动密集型运动治疗， 这给治疗师和医疗保健系统带来了巨大的负担。这个项目提出了一个解决这个问题的方法 通过开发机器人和触觉（触觉）技术， 患者 由于机器人能够提供可再现的和受控的运动，近年来机器人已被用于 中风后手臂、手腕、手指、步态和姿势的康复。触觉的结合引入了额外的 在康复治疗中，除了运动之外，还有力量的特点。其结果是一个具有触觉功能的机器人系统， 力和运动数据在治疗师和患者之间传送。这种双边互动使 患者直接从治疗师以及与他或她交互的机器人接收反馈， 在治疗期间治疗师与患者的同时交互参与。这使得治疗师不仅可以 观察由患者产生的运动，而且还通过触觉接口感受患者施加的力。的 在康复治疗期间，力和运动数据的可用性使得有可能开发性能测量， 评估损伤程度和康复效果。拟议的研究将集中在开发hapticsenable 机器人系统用于中风后康复，并通过一套以患者为导向的练习来评估其有效性。

Stroke is a leading cause of death and adult neurological disability in Canada with approximately 50,000 cases of stroke occurring every year and about 315,000 Canadians currently living with the effects of stroke. It has been estimated that stroke costs the Canadian economy almost 3.6 billion dollars a year. Approximately 90% of stroke sufferers experience permanent or long-lasting disability and require labour-intensive movement therapy as early as possible following stroke, placing a significant burden on therapists and the healthcare system. This project proposes a way to address this problem through the development of robotic and haptic (sense of touch) technologies for enabling post-stroke rehabilitation of patients. Because of their ability to provide reproducible, and controlled movements, robots have been used in recent years for rehabilitation of the arm, wrist, finger, gait, and posture following stroke. Incorporation of haptics introduces an additional feature in rehabilitation therapy that of force, in addition to motion. The result is a haptics-enabled robotic system where force and motion data are transferred between the therapist and the patient. This type of bilateral interaction enables the patient to receive feedback directly from the therapist as well as the robot with which he or she is interacting resulting in concurrent interactive participation of the therapist with the patient during the therapy. This allows the therapist to not only observe the motions generated by the patient but also to feel the forces that the patient exerts via the haptic interface. The availability of force and motion data during rehabilitation therapy makes it possible to develop performance measures for assessing the level of impairment and the effect of rehabilitation. The proposed research will focus on developing hapticsenabled robotic systems for post-stroke rehabilitation and evaluate their effectiveness via a set of patient-oriented exercises.