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Topic Name: Engineers develop Robotics lab that helps stroke patients with recovery

Category: Robotics

Research persons: Marcia O'Malley

Location: Rice University, United States

Details

Robotics engineers at Rice University are teaming with doctors from Memorial Hermann|TIRR to develop a PC-based system for physical rehabilitation.

"It can take months of physical therapy for stroke patients to regain the use of their limbs," said system architect Marcia O'Malley, director of Rice's Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Laboratory (MAHI). "We hope to refine our system to allow patients to recover faster and to allow therapists to more precisely monitor patients' recovery."

O'Malley and Memorial Hermann|TIRR doctors this fall began a two-year study of a prototype rehabilitation system developed at MAHI that uses a joystick to help patients with eye-to-hand coordination. The study involved 16 patients. In one exercise, the patients use the joystick to move an object from one part of the computer screen to another. Like all the systems in O'Malley's lab, the rehab program uses force-feedback technology called "haptics" that allow people to "feel" their environment while they are in virtual reality.

The term "haptic" refers to the perception of touch, and in the prototype rehab system, the joystick is outfitted with motors that push the stick to resist moves in the wrong direction. As a result, the patient's hands are guided along the right path. By repeating the exercise over and over, patients can gradually learn to control the objects on the screen in a smooth, precise way.

"We're interested in measuring how smooth the movements are, compared to what might be optimal," said O'Malley, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science. "The computer can precisely measure how a patient responds to every single exercise. This lets the doctors and physical therapists know exactly what their patient most needs to work on. This precise, measurable feedback provides a great advantage over the subjective evaluations currently in use."

O'Malley said researchers have been using computer-controlled robots for physical rehabilitation since the early 1990s, but so far the technology has been too expensive to use on a large scale. She thinks this will change within the next few years.

O'Malley said patients' enthusiasm for the technology is one reason it's likely to catch on.

"The patients who get a chance to try this tend to get very excited," said O'Malley, who has previously worked with doctors and patients from the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I've been inspired to see how hard patients are willing to work to regain their mobility, and our technology really plays to that strength. The machine never gets tired. It allows them to work as long and as hard as they want."

Note for Physical medicine and rehabilitation

Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), or physiatry, is a branch of medicine dealing with functional restoration of a person affected by physical disability. A physician who has completed training in this field is referred to as a physiatrist (fizz eye' a trist). In order to be a physiatrist in the United States, one must complete four years of medical school, one year of internship and three years of residency. Physiatrists specialize in restoring optimal function to people with injuries to the muscles, bones, tissues, and nervous system.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation involves the management of disorders that alter the function and performance of the patient. Emphasis is placed on the optimization of function through the combined use of medications, physical modalities, and experiential training approaches. Electrodiagnostics are used to diagnose and provide prognosis for various neuromuscular disorders.

Note for Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special or stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. Users can interact with a virtual environment or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus boom arm, and omnidirectional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from reality, as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult to create a high-fidelity virtual reality experience, due largely to technical limitations on processing power, image resolution and communication bandwidth. However, those limitations are expected to eventually be overcome as processor, imaging and data communication technologies become more powerful and cost-effective over time.