Implementation of a rehabilitation robot for glenohumeral joint mobilization

In this study, we designed a robot with six degrees of freedom (six-DOF robot) to treat patients with glenohumeral joint (GHJ) disease by using data obtained from a strength sensor and the degree of displacement of the humerus. From a safety perspective, Grade III joint mobilization is conducted to realize a system design capable of being applied for observation and rehabilitation of patients with GHJ diseases. The robot uses the output strength to displace the joint and reduce the resistance from joint tissue of the frozen shoulder. In the experiment, after dorsal translation mobilization (DTM) for all the subjects, from the load-displacement curve of GHJ, we could see progress of 0.59-3.31 mm for all subjects (under 30 N). After five DTM procedures, the maximum displacement reached a stable condition.