Use of robots in rehabilitative treatment

ABSTRACT

Recently, rehabilitation robotics technology has advanced, and several therapeutic robots have been developed. Robot-assisted rehabilitation therapy has a number of advantages over manual physical therapy. It can relieve the physical therapist from the strenuous task of manual assistance and provide high-dosage and high-intensity training. Therapeutic rehabilitation robots include end-effector and exoskeleton types, which are mainly applied for rehabilitation of upper extremity motor dysfunction or gait disturbance. In addition, they are used for patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, parkinsonism, and cerebral palsy. Several studies have reported that robot-assisted therapy has a beneficial effect on motor function in patients with impaired motor function, either alone or as an additional therapeutic tool in combination with conventional rehabilitation therapy. We believe that ongoing improvement in robotic technology will help to overcome the disadvantages of conventional rehabilitation therapy and to optimize rehabilitation therapies for disabled patients.