Rehab Robots Engineered to Help Stroke Patients

While they don’t look like R2-D2 or the other robotic stars of the silver screen, assistive robotic devices being designed to help stroke and spinal cord injury survivors with rehabilitation could be an even bigger hit.

The prototypes are armed with a scissor-like claw that can perform a variety of functions, including moving a glass of water or snatching a pen off the floor.

The project is the brainchild of two faculty members in the Laboratory of Adaptive Technologies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston who have recruited college engineering students to turn the teachers’ vision into a reality.

The idea is to build assistive robotic devices that can perform everyday tasks for patients recovering from diseases affecting their motor skills and to give the patients exercise in the process.

Lex Frieden, who heads the lab at the University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston and is a senior vice president at TIRR Memorial Hermann, and Catherine Ambrose, PhD, an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, are coaching student design teams at the University of Texas at Austin and Rice University that have been working on the project since the fall semester.

“Our goal is to motivate people with neurological diseases to continue their rehab at home,” Ambrose said in a statement. “We’re looking at these devices as motivational tools.”

Every year, about 700,000 people in the United States are confronted by new or recurrent strokes, and many have to relearn everyday tasks such as picking up a piece of fruit or opening a cabinet.

This is where assistive robotic devices can help. To manipulate the remote-controlled robots, patients use an instrument called an exoskeleton which is attached to one of the patient’s arms. Caregivers can gradually increase the range of motion and amount of exertion required to operate the devices in order to help patients build endurance.

Before they started the project, the students, who will be getting class credit, conferred with people recovering from stroke or spinal cord injuries at TIRR Memorial Hermann and with the physical therapists who care for these patients.

The prototypes are equipped with lifts designed to raise the grabber to the height of a table for easy access to glasses, utensils and dishes, which is no easy task. Their maximum height is around 3 feet.

Once the projects are completed, according to Frieden, tests will be organized to see how well these prototypes work on patients in a real world environment.

Source: University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston