Quantitative Assessment of Motor Function by an End-Effector Upper Limb Rehabilitation Robot Based on Admittance Control

Abstract

Various rehabilitation robots have been developed to assist the movement training of the upper limbs of stroke patients, among which some have been used to evaluate the motor recovery. However, how to understand the recovery of motor function from the quantitative assessment following robot-assisted rehabilitation training is still not clear. The objective of this study is to propose a quantitative assessment method of motor function based on the force and trajectory characteristics during robotic training to reflect motor functional recovery. To assist stroke patients who are not able to move voluntarily, an assistive training mode was developed for the robot-assisted rehabilitation system based on admittance control. Then, to validate the relationship between characteristic information and functional recovery, a clinical experiment was conducted, in which nine stroke patients and nine healthy subjects were recruited. The results showed a significant difference in movement range and movement smoothness during trajectory tracking tasks between stroke patients and healthy subjects. The two parameters above have a correlation with the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Extremity (FMU) of the involved patients. The multiple linear regression analysis showed FMU was positively correlated with parameters (R2=0.91,p<0.005). This finding indicated that the above-mentioned method can achieve quantitative assessment of motor function for stroke patients during robot-assisted rehabilitation training, which can contribute to promoting rehabilitation robots in clinical practice.

Enhancing Stroke Rehabilitation with Whole-Hand Haptic Rendering: Development and Clinical Usability Evaluation of a Novel Upper-Limb Rehabilitation Device

“…WristBot [49] or the device of Qian et al [50]-, devices with a combination of two linear axes to achieve planar movements-e.g., H-Man [51] and ArmMotus M2 Pro [52]-, and serial kinematic designs that offer arm movements in three-dimensional space-e.g., Burt ® [53] and ArmMotus ™ EMU [54].…”

Fuzzy Adaptive Passive Control Strategy Design for Upper-Limb End-Effector Rehabilitation Robot

“…Rehabilitation robots are typically categorized into two main types based on their connection to the user: end-effector type robots and exoskeleton type robots. In the endeffector type [12][13][14], the robot's end-effector is connected to the user's limb. In contrast, the exoskeleton type [15][16][17], also known as wearable rehabilitation robots, is wrapped around the human body, and each joint is controlled independently.…”

Design, testing and control of a smart haptic interface driven by 3D-printed soft pneumatic actuators for virtual reality-based hand rehabilitation

“…see [4]); the optimal tuning of inertial, damping and stiffness parameters can be exploited to reproduce a desired dynamical response on the user's side. The application of impedance/admittance control strategies to the robot-assisted rehabilitation for limbs [5], hands [6] and arms [7] of poststroke patients is relatively new. In this context, the implementation of adaptive assistance strategies through admittance control provides, in comparison to other control schemes, some undoubted advantages in terms of smooth and safe human-robot interaction.…”