Socially assistive robotics for post-stroke rehabilitation

TLDR

Rehabilitative robotics post‑stroke have mainly provided physical assistance, yet recent studies suggest therapy need not be hands‑on. The study introduces socially assistive robotics for post‑stroke rehabilitation, presenting a pilot mobile robot that offers monitoring, encouragement, and reminders, and outlines future experimental directions. The autonomous robot navigates, monitors arm activity, and reminds patients to follow a rehabilitation program. Preliminary follow‑up results indicate that the robot’s physical embodiment influences rehabilitation outcomes.

Abstract

Although there is a great deal of success in rehabilitative robotics applied to patient recovery post stroke, most of the research to date has dealt with providing physical assistance. However, new rehabilitation studies support the theory that not all therapy need be hands-on. We describe a new area, called socially assistive robotics, that focuses on non-contact patient/user assistance. We demonstrate the approach with an implemented and tested post-stroke recovery robot and discuss its potential for effectiveness. We describe a pilot study involving an autonomous assistive mobile robot that aids stroke patient rehabilitation by providing monitoring, encouragement, and reminders. The robot navigates autonomously, monitors the patient's arm activity, and helps the patient remember to follow a rehabilitation program. We also show preliminary results from a follow-up study that focused on the role of robot physical embodiment in a rehabilitation context. We outline and discuss future experimental designs and factors toward the development of effective socially assistive post-stroke rehabilitation robots.