Robotic Research Program -- (# 2)

I have now completed two weeks (six sessions) of my therapy program.Thanks to my sister Cynthia, and my brother-in-law Tom, I am staying in Mount Vernon,NY. The area is very nice, and my hosts are very nice, as is their home and by extension, my quarters. My commute consists of a train ride followed by a bus ride that takes me right to Burke Hospital. 

We previously touched on the this therapy utilizing robotics. Following is a more detailed description extracted froma Burke Hospital informational brochure:

The MIT-manus (the planar robot) was designed and built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and provides customized, goal-directed, robot assisted arm therapy. During therapy, the patient's hand and wrist are "held in a rigid support affixed to the robotic arm," and the patient must reach towards points in space that correspond to the positions of the targets on a screen. Throughout each therapy session, the participant completes a series of flexions, extensions, and rotational movements across the elbow and shoulder joints. If a limb is initially paralyzed, the robot will move it passively, but as motor function returns, the robot will require the patient to initiate progressively more movement. Thus as movements become increasingly accurate, it is believed that their trajectories are re-established and updated within the motor cortex.

Following is an InMotion HAND™ Robot Demo video which will give you a better 

idea of what is involved.

(If you have trouble playing the InMotion HAND™ Robot Demo video on your iPhone/iPod/iPad, it can be played on your computer at http://youtu.be/uuzB2iHkodE.)

Each session is scored by the computer and your progress is reflected on the monitor so that your progress can be tracked as you progress through your therapy. The following shows my progress moving through the prescribed motions. The chart on the left represents my initial capability prior to any robotic assistance. After a few cycles with robotic assistance, the chart on the right shows what I can do fter that on my own. Note how much smoother the motions are on the right side.

The following two charts represent the summary of 320 different readings in a day's theraapy. The significant readings are the Robot Power which indicates how much assistance was provided by the Robot, and the Motion Jerk which is a measure of how smooth her motions are. The targets for these readings are 200 and 100 respectively (the lower the better).