Development of a portable robot and graphical user interface for haptic rehabilitation exercise

This paper presents progress in the development of a robotic system for post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation. It is a portable, lower cost, actuated upper limb robotic rehabilitation device, which is being developed to meet the needs of stroke therapists and their patients. The developed system provides force feedback for haptic rehabilitation, applying both resistive and assistive forces for more targeted exercises for post-stroke patients. The proposed system includes a graphical user interface with both manual and automatic control of the robotic device for upper limb exercise. The automatic control makes use of artificially intelligent systems to adapt the treatment with minimal interventions of therapists. It also provides virtual rehabilitation games for stroke patients. A focus group study with therapists was conducted to assess the developed system. Additionally, individual therapist sessions are in progress to further develop the graphical user interface and virtual reality games. These and other planned studies will offer valuable insights of therapists and stroke survivors for the further development and commercialization of the robotic system.