Biocooperation in rehabilitation robotics of upper extremities

Multimodal rehabilitation environment including haptic, visual and audio pathways is, among other, also influencing the physiological state of the subject. Heart rate, skin conductance, respiratory rate and skin temperature were measured in 30 healthy subjects during a control task, a purely mental task, a task with minor physical load and a task with major physical load. All physical activity was performed using haptic robots. This paper presents an analysis of psycho physiological responses to these different tasks. Physiological responses were interpreted using the arousal-valence emotion model, which describes a person´s mental state with two variables: arousal and valence. This model was expanded with a third variable, physical load. Psycho physiological measurements yield results even in the presence of physical load and can thus potentially be useful for rehabilitation robotics.