Rehabilitation robotics and serious games: An initial architecture for simultaneous players

Traditional rehabilitation treatment includes repetitive and tedious exercises for the patient. The use of computer games can motivate and engage the patients attention, making the rehabilitation process more pleasant and attractive. In this context, this paper proposes an architecture that allows multiple users to take part simultaneously on a state of the art rehabilitation process using robots and computer games. The main components of this architecture are the impedance control system adopted by the therapy robots, the client-server communication structure (Telerehabilitation server) and the human machine interface based on a serious game. Preliminary experimental tests, involving a cooperative game with two users and individual robots, clearly demonstrate how the experience of the players may be influenced by impedance control.