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A robotic system to train activities of daily living in a virtual environment

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Abstract

In the past decade, several arm rehabilitation robots have been developed to assist neurological patients during therapy. Early devices were limited in their number of degrees of freedom and range of motion, whereas newer robots such as the ARMin robot can support the entire arm. Often, these devices are combined with virtual environments to integrate motivating game-like scenarios. Several studies have shown a positive effect of game-playing on therapy outcome by increasing motivation. In addition, we assume that practicing highly functional movements can further enhance therapy outcome by facilitating the transfer of motor abilities acquired in therapy to daily life. Therefore, we present a rehabilitation system that enables the training of activities of daily living (ADL) with the support of an assistive robot. Important ADL tasks have been identified and implemented in a virtual environment. A patient-cooperative control strategy with adaptable freedom in timing and space was developed to assist the patient during the task. The technical feasibility and usability of the system was evaluated with seven healthy subjects and three chronic stroke patients.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the healthy subjects and especially the patients who participated in this study. We also thank the therapists Anja Kollmar, Olivier Schmid and Daniela Kammerer who trained the patients and gave helpful input and feedback. Furthermore, we thank the Hocoma AG, Volketswil, Switzerland, for their contribution to the development of the hand module. The project was supported by the Swiss Research Foundation NCCR on Neural Plasticity, the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Centre of Competence in Research Robotics and by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) grant 325200-1260621.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sensory-Motor Systems Lab (SMS), ETH Zurich, TAN E, Tannenstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland

    Marco Guidali, Simon Broggi, Verena Klamroth-Marganska & Robert Riener

  2. Spinal Cord Injury Center, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Balgrist, Forchstrasse 340, Zurich, Switzerland

    Marco Guidali, Verena Klamroth-Marganska & Robert Riener

  3. Hocoma AG, Volketswil, Switzerland

    Alexander Duschau-Wicke

  4. Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Tobias Nef

Authors
  1. Marco Guidali
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  2. Alexander Duschau-Wicke
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  3. Simon Broggi
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  4. Verena Klamroth-Marganska
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  5. Tobias Nef
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  6. Robert Riener
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Correspondence to Marco Guidali.

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Guidali, M., Duschau-Wicke, A., Broggi, S. et al. A robotic system to train activities of daily living in a virtual environment. Med Biol Eng Comput 49, 1213–1223 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-011-0809-0

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