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News
Robotic Arm Helps Stroke Victims
Bioengineers have built a robotic exoskeleton arm to "retrain" the limbs of stroke survivors. The team from Arizona State University and Kinetic Muscles Inc. will present their work at this summer's 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics.
Recent research suggests that stroke survivors can recover significant use of their arms by performing repetitive motor function exercises over a period of time. This labor intensive physical therapy is expensive, however, claiming up to 4 percent of the national health budget, according to the National Institutes of Health. Moreover, health insurers may limit or deny coverage before stroke survivors achieve best results.
The device is dubbed RUPERT I for Robotic Upper Extremity Repetitive Therapy. The robot is designed to stand on a table and has an arm that extends about two feet. A patient's impaired arm is hooked up to the end of the robot's arm and as the robot's arm moves, the patient's arm is worked through a series of programmed motions. In a study of 13 patients who suffered a stroke during the previous one to five years, researchers found improved movement abilities in the exercised limb after six weeks. The robot is commercially available for research and clinical use.
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