Clinical Use of Robots as a Part of Rehabilitation Medicine

ABSTRACT

During recent years, many robots have been used for rehabilitation therapy and the rehabilitation robots have also advanced considerably. These robots can eliminate the repetitive tasks of the occupational or physical therapist and provide high-intensity and high-dosage training for the patients. In general, the robots used for rehabilitation therapy are classified into therapeutic and assistive robots, and therapeutic robots can be further divided into end-effector and exoskeleton types. In the study, we reviewed the clinical use of robot-assisted therapy as a part of rehabilitation medicine, especially in patients with stroke and Parkinson's disease.