Developing a Patient-Therapist-Robot User Model for Motivation in Neurorehabilitation Therapies

Abstract

Using a robot to guide a non-medically skilled human helper to perform neurorehabilitation post-stroke therapies is a challenging task. Much information needs to be expressed in a quick manner and it needs to be precise to empower the helper with the feeling of "doing the right thing" during a therapy session. This doctoral research paper aims to highlight current efforts of modelling the interaction in such a situation and presents the setup for its research. We suggest a robot system setup which will be used for the "arm basis training" (ABT). We will present selected research questions for modelling both users and the role of the robot. On the whole, we aim to make patient-helper interaction more engaging and easier. This could hopefully enable even non-medical helpers to perform this therapy and keep both participants' motivation high throughout the whole therapy.