Cognitive and neuromuscular robotic rehabilitation framework

Abstract

This paper presents a cognitive and neuromuscular robotic rehabilitation framework to support enhanced control of arm movement for humans with muscular control impairment, typically with some level of memory deficiency due to, for example, suffering from a stroke. It describes the design, development and integration of the framework architecture as well as a Baxter robot based demonstration platform. Three key elements of the proposed framework (rehabilitation module, workspace and rehabilitation scenarios) have been described in detail. In the rehabilitation sessions, the users and the robot are asked to work together to place cubes so as to form a predefined shape. The robot and the user hold the same object in order to move it to a particular destination according to a rehabilitation scenario. If the robot detects a force from the user directed in the wrong direction during the navigation then it resists and corrects the movement in order to assist the user towards the right direction. The assistive support scenarios were designed to evaluate the achieved enhancement of precision, efficiency and dexterity of arm movements. The proposed rehabilitation framework provides a modular, automated and open-source platform for researchers and practitioners in neuromuscular rehabilitation applications.