Development of knee joint robot for students becoming therapists — Development of training program for skill attainment in manual therapy techniques

Students becoming physical therapists (PT) or occupational therapists (OT) cannot experience rehabilitation for actual patients´ troubles before clinical training. For this reason we have developed the knee joint robot imitating patients´ troubles such as range of motion trouble, contracture, rigidity, spasticity and so on. Therefore students can experience rehabilitation for patients´ troubles virtually by using the robot. Moreover, from the standpoint of educational effect we have to develop a training program using the robot for the students to learn skilled manual therapy techniques for patients´ troubles. In this paper, we propose a training program consisting of the monitoring system, the force display system, the supervisory system and the evaluation system. Firstly, we develop monitoring function in which the graphs of robot´s angle, velocity and their appropriate values for training are displayed during training. Secondly, we develop simulation algorithms of clonus and hypertonia occurring in manual therapy. Lastly, we develop an evaluation method of manual therapy techniques for a patient with hypertonia.