EXOSKELETON ROBOTIC SYSTEMS USED AS A TOOL FOR CARDIAC REHABILITATION

摘要

Rehabilitation domain is one of the most dynamic field for exoskeletons robots, which are designed to assist patients in developing prescribed therapies. The exoskeletons should be able to respond to any command made by the patient or by the rehabilitation specialist. Thanks to technological advancements in mechatronics field, such robotic systems, greatly improve both the sensing and manipulation strengths of a patient. Within this paper the focus will be on identifying and performance evaluation of the existing medical exoskeletons used in cardiac rehabilitation therapy. To highlight the performance of exoskeletons in cardiac rehabilitation therapy, they were classified into several different categories based on their’ performance features. Further, a non-systematic literature review was performed using ScienceDirect bibliometric database to retrieve publications related to “exoskeleton robots” used in different medical therapies. A gap in scientific studies published in peer-reviewed literature on the commercial exoskeletons concerning cardiac rehabilitation was identified. Technology is rapidly evolving, and concerted investment into larger scale clinical trials is needed to identify the real benefits of the robotic skeletons in cardiac rehabilitation. Also, data from randomized clinical trials will be necessary to convince investors of the importance and benefits of funding robotic exoskeletons for patients with cardiac problems to support rehabilitation therapies.