A Novel Continuous Intention-Driven Rehabilitation Robot and Its Training Effectiveness - Biomechatronics in Medicine and Healthcare - page 59

Chapter Five

A Novel Continuous Intention-Driven
Rehabilitation Robot and Its Training
Effectiveness

Xiaoling Hu ∗ , Rong Song ∗ , Xiujuan Zheng ∗ , Wallace W. Leung † ,
Shamay Ng ‡ , Stephanie S. Au-Yeung ‡ and Raymond Kai-yu Tong ∗
∗ Department of Health Technology and Informatics,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
† Research Institute of Innovative Products & Technologies,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
‡ Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

5.1 INTRODUCTION

Stroke is a main cause of adult disabilities. The extent of restoration of limb
functions after stroke is highly associated with the intensive voluntary practice
of the affected limbs, which is associated with a motor relearning process to
re-establish neuromuscular pathways for desired limb functions (Butefisch et al .
1995; Farmer et al . 2004). In the absence of direct repair on the damaged brain
tissues after stroke, neurological rehabilitation is an arduous process. It is because
that poststroke rehabilitation programs are usually time-consuming and labor-
intensive for both the therapist and the patient in one-to-one manual interaction.
Recent technologies have made it possible to use robotic devices as assistance by
the therapist, providing safe and intensive rehabilitation with repeated motions
to persons after stroke (Volpe et al . 2004; Ng et al . 2008). The most commonly
reported motion types provided by developed rehabilitation robots are:

(1) continuous passive motion (CPM),
(2) active-assisted movement (Volpe et al . 2004), and
(3) challenge-based movement (Marchal-crespo and Reinkensmeyer 2009).