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Robot assisted rehabilitation of the arm after stroke: prototype design and clinical evaluation

Science China Information Sciences volume 60, Article number: 073201 (2017) Cite this article

Abstract

Robot assisted rehabilitation training is a promising tool for post-stroke patients’ recovery, and some new challenges are imposed on robot design, control, and clinical evaluation. This paper presents a novel upper limb rehabilitation robot that can provide safe and compliant force feedbacks to the patient for the benefits of its stiff and low-inertia parallel structure, highly backdrivable capstan-cable transmission, and impedance control method in the workspace. The “assist-as-needed” (AAN) clinical training principle is implemented through the “virtual tunnel” force field design, the “assistance threshold” strategy, as well as the virtual environment training games, and preliminary clinical results show its effectiveness for motor relearning for both acute and chronic stroke patients, especially for coordinated movements of shoulder and elbow.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61533016, 61421004, 61603386, U1613228), Early Career Development Award of SKLMCCS, and Beijing Science and Technology Project (Grant No. Z161100001516004).

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Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Liang Peng, Zeng-Guang Hou, Long Peng, Lincong Luo & Weiqun Wang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zeng-Guang Hou, Long Peng & Lincong Luo

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Zeng-Guang Hou

Authors
  1. Liang Peng
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  2. Zeng-Guang Hou
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  3. Long Peng
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  4. Lincong Luo
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  5. Weiqun Wang
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Correspondence to Zeng-Guang Hou.

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supporting information The supporting information is available online at info.scichina.com and link. springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Peng, L., Hou, ZG., Peng, L. et al. Robot assisted rehabilitation of the arm after stroke: prototype design and clinical evaluation. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 60, 073201 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-017-9076-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-017-9076-9

Keywords

  • rehabilitation robot
  • passive training
  • active training
  • force feedback
  • impedance control