engleski

Structured open-source procedure for the design and validation of an arm rehabilitation device

Background: The occurrence of stroke remains high, making it a global issue often accompanied by long-term disabilities such as upper limb paresis. To facilitate recovery, patients should engage in frequent and intensive rehabilitation sessions. The proposed approach is to develop an active upper limb mechatronics rehabilitation device. Materials and methods: The proposed self- aligning device relies on a 15 DOFs model of the human arm. Its design is tailored to the model along the shoulder-elbow-wrist-hand interaction chain, while optimizing the distribution of active and passive joints and verifying the required ranges of motion (ROMs). The open-source frameworks Blender and Robotic Operating System are used in designing and implementing the device kinematics. Results: The performed analyses allow developing a 14 DOFs device. The 8 active joints enable following the motions of the human shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand, while the 6 passive ones compensate for patient-device misalignments and parasitic shoulder translations. The conceived device satisfies most of the ROMs, with additional 60° required for the shoulder overhead motion and 15° for the wrist flexion/extension. A thorough kinematic analysis is performed by using the Denavit-Hartenberg convention implemented in the Neurorobotics Platform. Conclusions: A structured open-source rehabilitation device design procedure, comprising a functional model of the rehabilitation target, aligning and distributing the DOFs, validating the ROMs and implementing its kinematics, is proposed. The developed layout will be used for detailing the device aimed at providing unconstrained and smooth rehabilitation, where the passive parts will be 3D printed to accommodate compactness and affordability. Based on these considerations, initial design concepts of the forearm, wrist and hand components are finally proposed.

arm paresis ; active rehabilitation ; mechatronics device design ; kinematic analysis

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