I-Corps: Affordable Assistive Devices for Stroke Survivor Rehabilitation

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响是允许身体和神经事件的幸存者重新获得康复的自主权。虽然拟议的工作重点是中风幸存者，但它可以直接转化为对其他疾病的评估、援助和管理，以及在受伤后的一般培训中使用，并在工业中提高效率和降低受伤风险。有一个潜在的商业机会，解决干预提供者的需求，量化他们的设备和医疗保健提供者的效力，允许病人的背景。传统的康复设备往往价格低廉，但难以使用，导致疗效和依从性较低；相比之下，新的康复设备提供了更大的疗效，但通常更昂贵。由于大大降低了制造成本，新颖的驱动和量化传感器，以及为患者用户提供更清晰的输出，该设备可以通过即时自激励指标为评估提供量化数据。这种方法有可能破坏康复的标准范例。这个I-Corps项目是基于人类辅助机器人技术的研究。它进一步开发了一种价格合理的可变剂量外骨骼（APEX），这是一种可穿戴的上肢设备，用于支持和辅助四肢，由气动执行器提供独特的动力，并通过通信传感器和建模的反馈回路自适应地满足特定用户的需求。通过改变设备执行器的压力，APEX通过重力支撑、关节被动拉伸和阻力练习来辅助。一系列嵌入设备的传感器和定义的练习可以创建患者特定的模型，包括肢体长度、质量、运动范围和力量。通过根据病人的能力改变方案，可以通过选择性地改变援助或抵抗的数量来在一个范围内提供支持。由于APEX采用低成本、低质量的气动执行器，而不是直流电机，因此大大降低了功耗，延长了设备的容量。这使得患者可以在自己家中使用该设备，并在简化的界面上跟踪进度，分析结果将发送给他们的治疗师、培训师或医生。

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is in allowing survivors of physical and neurological events to regain autonomy over their rehabilitation. While the proposed work focuses on stroke survivors, there is direct translation to the assessment, assistance, and management of other conditions, as well as use in general training after injury, and in industry to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of injury. There is a potential commercial opportunity in addressing the needs of intervention providers in quantifying the efficacy of their equipment and healthcare providers in allowing for contextualization of patients. Traditional rehabilitation equipment tends to be affordable but difficult to use, resulting in low efficacy and adherence; comparatively, new rehab equipment provides greater efficacy, but is typically more expensive. With drastically lowered manufacturing costs, novel actuation and quantified sensors, and clearer outputs for patient users, this device can provide quantifiable data for evaluation through instantaneous self-motivating metrics. This approach has the potential to disrupt the standard paradigms of rehabilitation.This I-Corps project is informed by research in human-assistive, robotic, technologies. It further develops an affordable, variable-dosage exoskeleton (APEX), a wearable upper-body device to support and assist the limbs, uniquely powered by pneumatic-actuators, and adaptive to address specific user needs through feedback loops of communicative sensors and modeling. By changing the pressures in the device's actuators, APEX assists through gravitational support, passive stretching of joints, and resistance exercises. A series of device-embedded sensors and defined exercises enable the creation of patient-specific models, incorporating limb lengths, masses, ranges of motion, and strengths. By varying the protocol based on a patient's abilities, support can be provided on a spectrum by selectively changing the amount of assistance or resistance. Because APEX utilizes low-cost, low-mass, pneumatic-actuators rather than DC motors, it significantly reduces power consumption and prolongs the capacity of the device. This allows for patients to use the device in their own home, and track progress on a simplified interface - the analytics of which are sent back to their therapist, trainer, or physician.