Rehabilitation Robot with Patient-Cooperative Control for Bimanual Training of Hemiparetic Subjects

Hemiparesis is the most common motor deficit following stroke. Bimanual training and robot-assisted therapy are often used to regain motor functionality of the paretic limb. The goal of this study is the development and validation of a bimanual training system that stimulates the use of both arms of hemiparetic subjects. The adaptive assistance control adjusts the contribution of the unaffected arm, thus reducing the load on the paretic arm. Hemiparetic subjects performed three different tracking exercises in bimanual mode and in two unimanual modes to validate the applicability of the system. In bimanual mode, the patient uses the unaffected limb to initiate and guide the movement. The movement of the paretic limb must be coordinated with the unaffected limb to complete the exercise. The training resulted in improvements of motor performance. High and significant correlation between bimanual training and unimanual performance was observed. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011