A REHABILITATION SYSTEM FOR ELBOW JOINTNEUROMUSCULAR RECOVERY

摘要

Rehabilitation for recovering the nerve motor system ofrnpatients with neuromuscular damage, such as those due tornspinal cord injury and spasm, has been based on extremelyrnlabour intensive physiotherapy procedures. A potentialrnsolution for helping patients to expedite their recovery fromrnneurological disorders and improve their ability inrnperforming activities of daily living would be by usingrnmechatronic-assistive devices that can be controlled by thernpatients themselves. The inclusion of modern input devicesrnsuch as Head Mouse or brain-computer interfacerntechnology with neurological stimulation to help neuralrnmodulation has been advocated by others in the relatedrnresearch community. This paper introduces a powerassistedrnexoskeleton prototype system for producing elbowrnflexion-extension motion by using a Head Mouse as anrninput of control commands by the patient. Experimentsrnwere conducted to evaluate the effectiveness (Position,rnVelocity, Acceleration, and Torque) of the exoskeleton.rnResults demonstrate that the device would be a usefulrnrehabilitation tool for patients with neuromuscular disorder.