Yuko Ito

Basic experiments of upper limb rehabilitation using haptic device system

Rehabilitation exercises which maintain a patients interest and quantitative evaluation of rehabilitation are required. To solve these problems, we have developed a haptic device system. This system consists of a haptic device, a display, a computer, and software for a training program. When users move the grip, the haptic device provides a virtual force, either assisting the movement of their arm or working against it. To investigate the functional effect of this system using a training program, we measured the grip position, velocity, force on the grip, and electromyographic (EMG) activities during a reaching task for five healthy subjects. Spatio-temporal patterns of both the velocity and grip force, the accuracy of the grip trajectories, and the EMG patterns were similar in all subjects. These results suggested that the EMG activities were improved by applying the virtual force to the grip. These results can be used for the development of rehabilitation training programs and evaluation methods.

Development of an upper limb patient simulator for physical therapy exercise

Physical therapist plays an important role to help people to regain the social life from disease and physical handicap. However, they can obtain their skills only from their practical experiences. The physical therapist trainee can enrich is experience only from the clinical practical training and this opportunity is limited. Therefore, we have been developing the upper limb patient simulator, which reproduce the stiffness of elbow joint to allow trainees to increase the opportunities to obtain the practical exercise of the physical therapy. The system reproduces the diseases by generating stiffness of the elbow joint, when the trainee tries to flex the elbow joint of the patient. We developed a mechanical part and a control system to realize the patient conditions and the full system has been evaluated by veteran physical therapists.

Haptic Device System for Upper Limb Motor and Cognitive Function Rehabilitation: Grip Movement Comparison between Normal Subjects and Stroke Patients

We have developed a rehabilitation system utilising a haptic device. This system aims to integrate motion and sensory therapy ensuring that the patients interest is maintained and to establish a quantitative assessment of the level of disorder. This system consists of a haptic device, a computer and a LCD monitor. The user moves the grip of the haptic device according to the training program, which is displayed on the computer screen. The haptic device provides a virtual force to the grip. Various types of force can be applied, e.g. resistance, assistance, viscosity and friction. The basic and applied training programs are prepared for training and evaluation including training with simple motion and games. Suitable training can be chosen from the different types of training programs according to the patients disability. An experiment was carried out with normal healthy subjects and patients who have upper limb dysfunction. The results indicated that this system could be used for quantitative assessment and provide tailor-made training programs for individual patients.

Trial usage of rehabilitation system: simple driving simulator for the driving skill evaluation of people with cerebrovascular disease: CVD

We have developed a simple tentative version of the driving simula-tor for rehabilitation using a Personal Computer (SDS). We described the over-view of the system and the trial usage of this system for people with Cere-brovascular disease. The test results of the subjects whom an occupational therapist in attendance assessed to be able to drive a car showed values almost the same as the data of the healthy subjects. The effectiveness of the system was suggested in the preliminary experiments and a case study

Upper-limb rehabilitation system using haptic device with basic motion training program

A haptic device for the rehabilitation tool system has been developed. It aimed to integrate the motion and sensory therapy without the patients loosing their interests. This rehabilitation tool system consists of a haptic device, a display, a computer and software for training and evaluation. The haptic device provides a virtual force either assist the movement of her/his arm or work against it. The user can feel the virtual force when moving the grip of haptic device. We had preliminary experiment with youth and middle age subjects group and elderly subjects group. It aimed to confirm the functionality of the system and to collect the reference data for evaluation the upper-limb disability. In this paper, we present the experimental results with basic motion training and evaluation program.

Haptic Device System for Upper Limb and Cognitive Rehabilitation – Application for Development Disorder Children

A rehabilitation system using mechatronics, virtual reality can provide interactive therapy that engages the user’s interest. It can also offer a simple and flexible environmental setup with precise recursive training and can gather training data at the same time. Several kinds of virtual reality applications are currently available in this field. For example, MITMANUS, MIME (Mirror Image Movement Enabler), Assisted Rehabilitation and Measurement (ARM) Guide, and a rehabilitation training system using an electrorheological actuator. Current research is primarily focused on providing effective rehabilitation of adult users. However, users of rehabilitation systems also include children. According to occupational therapists, therapy for developmentally disabled children should include a variety of training and typically requires hand-eye coordination because this is an important skill for school.

Development of a patient simulator for physical therapy exercise of the upper limb

Physical therapists play an important role to help people to regain social life after a disease or physical handicap. However, they can obtain their skills only from their practical experiences. The physical therapist trainee can enrich is experience only from the clinical practical training and this opportunity is limited. Therefore, we have been developing the upper limb patient simulator, which reproduce the stiffness of the elbow joint to allow trainees to increase the opportunities to obtain the practical exercise of the physical therapy. The system reproduces the diseases by generating stiffness of the elbow joint when the trainee tries to flex the simulated patients arm elbow joint. We developed a mechanical part and a control system to realize the patient conditions and the full system has been evaluated by veteran physical therapists.