Whole-Arm Rehabilitation Following Stroke: Hand Module

In 1991, a novel robot named MIT-MANUS was introduced as a test bed to study the potential of using robots to assist in and quantify the neuro-rehabilitation of motor function. It introduced a new brand of therapy, offering a highly backdrivable mechanism with a soft and stable feel for the user. MIT-MANUS proved an excellent fit for shoulder and elbow rehabilitation in stroke patients, showing in clinical trials a reduction of impairment in these joints. The greater reduction in impairment was observed in the group of muscles exercised. This suggests a need for additional robots to rehabilitate other target areas of the body. The focus here is a robot for hand rehabilitation. Previous work has expanded the planar MIT-MANUS including an anti-gravity robot for shoulder-and-elbow training, and a wrist robot for wrist flexion-extension, abduction-adduction, and pronation-supination training. In this paper we present the "missing link": a hand robot. We will discuss the basic system design and characterization. A comprehensive review of the hand robot design, characterization, and initial whole-arm clinical results are being submitted elsewhere (IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering)