The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project concerns the rehabilitation of movement deficits due to disease or injury. Commercially, the project falls within the rehabilitation robot market, specifically the segment that addresses neurological rehabilitation. Currently, available robotic rehabilitation technology focuses mainly on the recovery of motor function after stroke and restricts patient motion to a single plane. This project involves a robotic device that extends the scope of current rehabilitation robots by a) allowing unrestricted 3D movement, and b) incorporating somatosensory in addition to motor training methods. The commercial potential of this I-Corps project is not restricted to clinics specializing on stroke rehabilitation. The device can be used on a broad disease spectrum that includes stroke, but can be extended to patients with Parkinson's disease, dystonia, and traumatic brain injuries.
This I-Corps project further develops a robotic rehabilitation device that seeks to improve wrist/hand function. The robot comprises a series of motors that can passively move the human wrist/hand, or assist/resist active human wrist motion. It allows for unrestricted 3-dimensional motion while precisely recording wrist joint motion. The system is integrated with a visual virtual reality environment that can provide movement feedback and can serve as an interface for visual-based training regimes. The technology has been tested in over 300 human users aged 18-82 years. It has been applied to assess sensory and motor dysfunction in stroke survivors and patients with Parkinson's disease. Test-retest reliability and validity of its outcome measures has been established.
