No abstract

We have developed an oral-rehabilitation robot WAO-1 (Waseda Asahi Oral-rehabilitation robot No. 1) for use in cases of oral disorders such as temperomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder and dry mouth. WAO-1 is the first robot designed to provide massage to the facial tissues of a patient with oral disorders. This robot provides massage to the masseter and temporal muscles and to the parotid gland and duct with simple operation. It consists of two six-degree-of-freedom arms with plungers, a body with headrest, a control box, a PC, and an automatic massage trajectory generation system with virtual compliance control. Two evaluation experiments were performed to verify the effectiveness of the oral massages of WAO-1 compared with the massages given by doctors. In the experiments, the massage to the parotid gland and duct by WAO-1 increased the amount of saliva in the subjects, and the massage to the masseter muscle by WAO-1 increased facial skin temperature and width of the masseter muscle in the subjects. We consider that these results indicate that massage by WAO-1 can be effective for patients with oral disorders.

Implementation of virtual compliance control in the WAO-1 massage robot is feasible and useful for implementation of safe and potentially effective maxillofacial massage therapy.

It is well known that the massage therapy is useful for the rehabilitation of various diseases (i.e. oral health problems, ete.), Although various apparatus have been developed for the massage of the torso and limbs, there is still little knowledge about their real effectiveness. For this purpose, authors have proposed the development of a robotic system that provides massage therapy of the maxillofacial region to patients with temporomandibular joint disorders. As a result of our research, we have developed the Waseda-Asahi Oral-Rehabilitation No.1 (WAD-I), which it is composed by two six-degrees of freedom arms with plungers attached at their end-effector. Preclinical tests were carried out to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system. In order to evaluate the safety measures of the applied forces during the massage therapy, we have based our analysis on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) which is a conventional subjective evaluation methods commonly used in the medical field. From the experimental results, we could confirm the effectiveness of the therapy provided by WAD-I.