Estimation of Patient Participation during Therapeutic Movements Using the Anklebot: Technique and Preliminary Results

Increasing patient participation during therapeutic exercises is a key issue to design a neuro-rehabilitation strategy. In this paper, we show our on-going efforts to quantify how much effort is performing the patient during robotic therapy. We propose an methodology for online estimation of the patient participation during one session of ankle therapy using the Anklebot. As a valid measurement of the participation we propose the identification of the stiffness of the ankle around a determined position, assuming the neuro-muscular system acts as a mechanical impedance. As proof of the concept, we intend to compare the values of the estimated stiffness with the values of the human torque obtained from mathematical models of the ankle dynamics and muscular activity recorded during the movements.