A Semi-passive Planar Manipulandum for Upper-Extremity Rehabilitation.

ABSTRACT: Robotic rehabilitation is a promising approach to treat individuals with neurological or orthopedic disorders. However, despite significant advancements in the field of rehabilitation robotics, this technology has found limited traction in clinical practice. A key reason for this issue is that most robots are expensive, bulky, and not scalable for in-home rehabilitation. Here, we introduce a semi-passive rehabilitation robot (SepaRRo) that uses controllable passive actuators (i.e., brakes) to provide controllable resistances at the end-effector over a large workspace in a manner that is cost-effective and safe for in-home use. We also validated the device through theoretical analyses, hardware experiments, and human subject experiments. We found that by including kinematic redundancies in

SUBMITTER: Chang CK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5980770 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature