Emergence of flexible technology in developing advanced systems for post-stroke rehabilitation: a comprehensive review

摘要

Objective. Stroke is one of the most common neural disorders, which causes physical disabilitiesand motor impairments among its survivors. Several technologies have been developed forproviding stroke rehabilitation and to assist the survivors in performing their daily life activities.Currently, the use of flexible technology (FT) for stroke rehabilitation systems is on a rise thatallows the development of more compact and lightweight wearable systems, which stroke survivorscan easily use for long-term activities. Approach. For stroke applications, FT mainly includes the‘flexible/stretchable electronics’, ‘e-textile (electronic textile)’ and ‘soft robotics’. Thus, a thoroughliterature review has been performed to report the practical implementation of FT for post-strokeapplication. Main results. In this review, the highlights of the advancement of FT in strokerehabilitation systems are dealt with. Such systems mainly involve the ‘biosignal acquisitionunit’, ‘rehabilitation devices’ and ‘assistive systems’. In terms of biosignals acquisition,electroencephalography and electromyography are comprehensively described. Forrehabilitation/assistive systems, the application of functional electrical stimulation and roboticsunits (exoskeleton, orthosis, etc) have been explained. Significance. This is the first review articlethat compiles the different studies regarding FT based post-stroke systems. Furthermore, thetechnological advantages, limitations, and possible future implications are also discussed to helpimprove and advance the flexible systems for the betterment of the stroke community.