Developing rehabilitation robots for the brain injured

Abstract

Although rehabilitation robotics have been used for helping disabled persons in various areas of disability, such as stroke rehabilitation, very little research has been done with the brain injured persons and robotics. This paper discusses the implementation of a simple model, which consists of brain body interface, a computer, an interface program and an electronic circuit to interface the computer to a robotic arm. This was an exploratory research that was carried out that allowed a brain-injured person to do simple tasks using robotic arms. This paper also looks at rehabilitation robotics both past and present. The paper goes on to explore the new avenues available to enhance this exploratory research. In this paper, we take the brain body interface communications a step further where the brain injured persons will not only communicate but will also be able to do simple tasks. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.