Haptic Instrumentation for Physical Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients

The recovery of hand functions in post-stroke patients relies on the length of therapy that is available to them. Rehabilitation exercises supervised by occupational therapists are characterized by repetitiveness and a constant increase in intensity. However, due to resource limitations, facilities and time allocated to recovering stroke patients restrict the maximum level of rehabilitation that can be attained. Various efforts have therefore been spent into rehabilitation themes set in virtual environments, sometimes using haptic devices, in order to create affordable stand-alone systems that patients could use at home. This study carries forward in that direction by implementing hapto-virtual reality based exercises for the purposes of hand rehabilitation. In this paper, we present a haptic-based rehabilitation system that can be set in the patient´s own house to provide him/her with treatment that is not restricted by time and facilities and that offers continuous evaluation of the patient´s improvement