A virtual-reality tracking game for use in robot-assisted ankle rehabilitation

Ankle injuries are very common; but rehabilitation exercises are repetitive and boring in both traditional physiotherapy and robot-assisted training. This paper developed a virtual-reality tracking game on an existing ankle rehabilitation robot to make the rehabilitation exercises more interesting and interactive. This game not only eliminates the boredom of the repetitive training but also allows the realization of various rehabilitation strategies. Five healthy subjects participated in this study for the evaluation of this tracking game. Both quantitative and qualitative feedbacks were obtained from each participant and results show that this tracking game has extensive potential when combined with robot-assisted ankle rehabilitation. Future work will focus on the realization of advanced rehabilitation strategies by adding assistive/resistive control elements and improving the interactiveness.