Increasing motivation in robot-aided arm rehabilitation with competitive and cooperative gameplay.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Several strategies have been proposed to improve patient motivation and exercise intensity during robot-aided stroke rehabilitation. One relatively unexplored possibility is two-player gameplay, allowing subjects to compete or cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal. In order to explore the potential of such games, we designed a two-player game played using two ARMin arm rehabilitation robots.

Methods

The game was an air-hockey task displayed on a computer monitor and controlled using shoulder movements in the ARMin robot. Three game modes were tested: single-player (competing against computer), competitive (competing against human), and cooperative (cooperating with human against computer). All modes were played by 30 unimpaired subjects and 8 impaired

SUBMITTER: Novak D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4021830 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature