Novel Haptics-Enabled Robotic Systems for Rehabilitation Therapy

在加拿大，中风是导致死亡和成人神经功能障碍的主要原因，大约有5万例中风病例 每年都会发生，目前约有315,000加拿大人生活在中风的影响下。据估计， 中风每年给加拿大经济造成近36亿美元的损失。约90%的中风患者经历 永久性或长期残疾，并需要在中风后尽早进行劳动密集型运动治疗， 给治疗师和医疗保健系统带来了巨大的负担。这个项目提出了一种解决这个问题的方法 通过开发机器人和触觉(触觉)技术，实现中风后康复 病人。 由于它们能够提供可重复的、可控制的运动，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。结合触觉技术带来了额外的 康复治疗的特点是除了运动外，还要有力量。其结果是产生了一个触觉机器人系统，其中 力和运动数据在治疗师和患者之间传输。这种类型的双边互动使 患者直接从治疗师以及他或她与之交互的机器人那里获得反馈 在治疗过程中，治疗师与患者同时互动参与。这使得治疗师不仅可以 观察患者产生的运动，同时感受患者通过触觉界面施加的力。这个 康复治疗期间的力和运动数据的可用性使开发性能测量成为可能 评估损伤程度和康复效果。拟议的研究将集中在开发触觉敏感型 为中风后康复提供机器人系统，并通过一套以患者为中心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.