Towards the commercialization of a robotics-assisted rehabilitation platform for stroke therapy of upper limb

Stroke is the primary cause of physical disability resulting in motor dysfunction. Rehabilitation robots are employed to automate repetitive goal-oriented tasks, and strengthen neural pathways. The portable robot built by our team in collaboration with Quanser can be programmed to aid therapists, and assist upper-limb movements to deliver rehabilitation. In this project, various limitations that currently exist are overcome. First, movement assessment in rehabilitation is usually subjective, and lacks quantitative measures so adding proper sensing mechanisms bridges this gap. To this end, our proposed system incorporates kinesthetic and tactile haptic feedback for therapy and functionality assessment. Additionally, introducing tele-rehabilitation technology alleviates strains on therapists, and releases the need of active physical presence. Therefore, it facilitates home-based therapy that can potentially contribute to the reduction of healthcare costs while offering more accessibility, precision and consistency than traditional techniques. Ultimately, these extra features will justify the commercialization of the Quansers rehabilitation robot.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alex Mihailidis

Student:

Nima Najmaei

Partner:

Quanser Consulting

Discipline:

Engineering - biomedical

Sector:

Advanced manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto