Rehabilitation is important to reduce impairment and restore quality of life in individuals with long-term disability such as stroke. Objective assessments of motor capacity and performance are useful tools to assess motor recovery and determine therapy protocols that have the potential to promote rehabilitation. However, traditional clinical assessments can be prohibitively lengthy for outpatient use, subjective, and often only measure capacity for activity which does not necessarily correlate with functional recovery. Robotic and sensor systems provide an objective basis for assessment through the precise measurement of kinematic and dynamic qualities of movement. Tracking and assessing motion during an individuals time outside of the clinic using robotic and sensor systems can provide information on both capacity for and performance during activities of daily living. Because this approach more directly tracks performance-based recovery goals, provides objective measurements, and offloads time spent on assessment in the clinic, it has the potential to augment therapist decision-making to improve outcomes for individuals with long-term disability. Our goals are to create lightweight and usable hardware for individuals with long-term disability that enables at-home tracking of the hand and wrist and to improve existing methodologies for quantifying human motion. With the information gathered we hope to provide novel information to therapists that can provide meaningful improvements in therapy outcomes and standard of care.
Rehabilitation Robotics