The Robotics Lab of the Faculty of Engineering at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi (UASLP) develops different projects aimed at improving the quality disability-rehabilitation therapies with the use of robots, especially for the upper limbs.
“One of the advantages of incorporating technology in the process is that it allows obtaining, by using sensors, feedback on the therapy process, measuring parameters such as strength, trajectories and torques of the tool,” said Roxana Leon, one of the collaborators of the project.
“It’s important to have these parameters, in order to quantify the degree of progress in patients and to generate feedback of the process,” she added.
Currently, they work with three experimental models, among other projects, proposing technology assisted rehabilitation, in which the patient can perform physical therapy for shoulder, elbow and wrist.
The exercises consist of tracking preset trajectories in which the patient can perform basic movements of pronation, supination, extension and flexion.
In the first model they use industrial robots. “Rehabilitation aided by robots simulates activities with functional movements for daily living, with virtual feedback through games and graphics, allowing therapy to be more fun and lively“, she said.
The second proposes rehabilitation by tracking virtual paths. “These movements are detected by a Kinect sensor and then are stored in a database that records each patient’s file and data on paths followed in each session,” designers Aldo Montes and Armando Torres, said.
The third project rehabilitates wrist through a system based on the use of a haptic unit interacting with a virtual environment, which allows movement therapies required for the assessment and rehabilitation of patients.
In addition, the patient can interact with various games while performing exercises that allow strengthening the wrist, independently of the origin of the disability.
Source: Notimex
