Measurement of reaching movement with 6-DOF upper rehabilitation system “Robotherapist”

Abstract

In recent years, the needs for rehabilitation support systems are increasing, which use robot technology and virtual reality technology. Applying these technologies make efficient rehabilitation possible. We have developed 6-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) upper rehabilitation support system to evaluate synergy pattern of stroke survivors and to train stroke survivors, named 'Robotherapist'. When stroke survivors who can move plural joints only along a certain constant pattern called synergy pattern do reaching movement, some of them cannot keep their posture of the arm normal, but can move their hand along the aim orbit. In this study, we experiment on a measurement of reaching movement with our system and make a model of movement peculiar to stroke survivors and a model of movement of healthy people. Additionally, we propose application software for reaching training with this model. In this paper, we report measurement of reaching movement and propose application software for reaching training with our system.