Robotic Therapy
A U.S. Army small business innovation research is looking for an integrated physical therapy/rehabilitation robotic system to develop a reconfigurable medical robotic system for physical therapy and rehabilitation to enhance health care capabilities with advanced system functionality, telepresence and teleconsultation.
A U.S. Army small business innovation research (SBIR) is looking for an integrated physical therapy/rehabilitation robotic system to enhance military health care. According to the DoD’s SBIR program, “Is to harness the innovative talents of our nation’s small technology companies for U.S. military and economic strength.”
The goal of the investigation is to develop a reconfigurable medical robotic system for physical therapy and rehabilitation to enhance health care capabilities with advanced system functionality, telepresence and teleconsultation at DoD and VA hospitals.
Goals
Physical therapy provides health care services in evaluating and treating people with health care problems resulting from injury or disease by means of assessing/enhancing joint motion, muscle strength and endurance, and performance of daily living activities. Physical therapists are in short supply in both the U.S. military and civilian community (rural areas in particular) resulting in congressional legislation to counter this trend through education in physical therapy.
Physical therapy was introduced into U.S. Army in 1917. To date, besides common injuries caused by regular training missions and motion dysfunctions on duty, 70 percent of combat injuries are linked to traumatic brain injuries, extremity injuries and spinal cord injuries, resulting in musculoskeletal and neuromuscular functional problems. Physical therapy rehabilitation via computer controlled robotic systems for motion function recovery can be provided not only near the front line but, in military hospitals, VA rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, schools, local health centers and potentially in the patients’ homes.
Today’s robot physical therapy and rehabilitation systems have been emerging as a new direction of technology development to assist and enhance health care since the end of 20th century. Reports on rehabilitation robotic systems such as MIT-Manus demonstrated that a computer controlled electro-mechanical system can be applied in dedicated stroke treatment for upper limb rehabilitation.
A treadmill-based physical therapy and rehabilitation platform (Locomat) is capable of providing therapy to patients with lower limb injuries in locomotion recovery. However, so far there is no rehabilitation robotic technology available for progressive, reconfigurable procedures and multi-purpose training. In physical therapy centers and health care centers, only passive (or resistive) training equipments are utilized for physical function recovery and physical conditioning. There is no existing robotic physical therapy system to provide actively computer controlled and motorized strength training and physical conditioning.
A reconfigurable physical therapy/rehabilitation robotic system is highly desired to deliver rapid motion recovery for patients with musculoskeletal or neuromuscular problems thereby enhancing the health care capabilities, and meeting the special needs of the U.S. military and civilian health care beneficiaries through active reconfiguration of system structure, and remote accessing/monitoring of computer procedures and parameters. Such a reconfigurable robotic physical therapy system can have compact and configurable hardware and software systems, as well as multiple optional training procedures for upper limbs, lower limbs and body motion control functions.
The key requirements for this medical health care robot system are: 1) range of motion treatment capabilities, 2) precise force and strength treatment, 3) progressive development procedures according to real-time patient monitoring of the joint motion profile (position, velocity, acceleration), force sensing and other physiology sensing, 4) training for amputees with prosthetic devices in body balancing, posture control, gait and strengthening, and 5) telepresence capabilities for remote consultation and supervision.
Phase I of this SBIR will conduct research and collect data focused on previous and current work in robotic physical therapy/rehabilitation system development to design a reconfigurable robot for health care enhancement. It is expected to provide a detailed report describing the conceptual design as well as different applications of the proposed medical robotic system for physical therapy and rehabilitation. The final aspect will be to identify design features and applications that will improve the quality, access and cost of medical care in subsequent phases of this project.
Based on the recommendations developed in Phase I, Phase II will design, develop and demonstrate a functional prototype of such a medical robotic system to enhance health care capabilities with desirable function integration in physical therapy, optional procedures, viable interactions and remote access of physical therapy supervisor. It is expected that system hardware and software should be able to cover all/or a subset of these requirements:
The goal of the investigation is to develop a reconfigurable medical robotic system for physical therapy and rehabilitation to enhance health care capabilities with advanced system functionality, telepresence and teleconsultation at DoD and VA hospitals.
Goals
Physical therapy provides health care services in evaluating and treating people with health care problems resulting from injury or disease by means of assessing/enhancing joint motion, muscle strength and endurance, and performance of daily living activities. Physical therapists are in short supply in both the U.S. military and civilian community (rural areas in particular) resulting in congressional legislation to counter this trend through education in physical therapy.
Physical therapy was introduced into U.S. Army in 1917. To date, besides common injuries caused by regular training missions and motion dysfunctions on duty, 70 percent of combat injuries are linked to traumatic brain injuries, extremity injuries and spinal cord injuries, resulting in musculoskeletal and neuromuscular functional problems. Physical therapy rehabilitation via computer controlled robotic systems for motion function recovery can be provided not only near the front line but, in military hospitals, VA rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, schools, local health centers and potentially in the patients’ homes.
Today’s robot physical therapy and rehabilitation systems have been emerging as a new direction of technology development to assist and enhance health care since the end of 20th century. Reports on rehabilitation robotic systems such as MIT-Manus demonstrated that a computer controlled electro-mechanical system can be applied in dedicated stroke treatment for upper limb rehabilitation.
A treadmill-based physical therapy and rehabilitation platform (Locomat) is capable of providing therapy to patients with lower limb injuries in locomotion recovery. However, so far there is no rehabilitation robotic technology available for progressive, reconfigurable procedures and multi-purpose training. In physical therapy centers and health care centers, only passive (or resistive) training equipments are utilized for physical function recovery and physical conditioning. There is no existing robotic physical therapy system to provide actively computer controlled and motorized strength training and physical conditioning.
A reconfigurable physical therapy/rehabilitation robotic system is highly desired to deliver rapid motion recovery for patients with musculoskeletal or neuromuscular problems thereby enhancing the health care capabilities, and meeting the special needs of the U.S. military and civilian health care beneficiaries through active reconfiguration of system structure, and remote accessing/monitoring of computer procedures and parameters. Such a reconfigurable robotic physical therapy system can have compact and configurable hardware and software systems, as well as multiple optional training procedures for upper limbs, lower limbs and body motion control functions.
The key requirements for this medical health care robot system are: 1) range of motion treatment capabilities, 2) precise force and strength treatment, 3) progressive development procedures according to real-time patient monitoring of the joint motion profile (position, velocity, acceleration), force sensing and other physiology sensing, 4) training for amputees with prosthetic devices in body balancing, posture control, gait and strengthening, and 5) telepresence capabilities for remote consultation and supervision.
Phase I of this SBIR will conduct research and collect data focused on previous and current work in robotic physical therapy/rehabilitation system development to design a reconfigurable robot for health care enhancement. It is expected to provide a detailed report describing the conceptual design as well as different applications of the proposed medical robotic system for physical therapy and rehabilitation. The final aspect will be to identify design features and applications that will improve the quality, access and cost of medical care in subsequent phases of this project.
Based on the recommendations developed in Phase I, Phase II will design, develop and demonstrate a functional prototype of such a medical robotic system to enhance health care capabilities with desirable function integration in physical therapy, optional procedures, viable interactions and remote access of physical therapy supervisor. It is expected that system hardware and software should be able to cover all/or a subset of these requirements:
- Training procedures with range of motion functionality recovery.
- Training procedures for strengthening and conditioning with active force control.
- Training for patients using prosthetic devices to help recover normal motion function of limbs.
- Being compact and reconfigurable for multiple therapy treatment procedures with training performance optimization.
- Work safely and robustly with or without monitoring of a physical therapy assistant or technician.
- Work well for upper/lower limb treatments for neuro-musculoskeletal motion functions.
- Perform well under interactions and supervision of a physical therapist via telepresence or teleconsultation.
The ultimate goal of this research, Phase III, is to provide a new physical therapy robot system for use in military and civilian rehabilitation hospitals to enhance health care quality and extend staff capabilities. This system will also have the potential for applications in other health care and allied care facilities including nursing homes, long-term care of the disabled, and athlete exercises centers, providing treatments on orthopedic injuries such as sprains, back pain and joint pain; wound care due to diabetes or trauma; neurologic impairments such as stroke, paraplegia and balance dysfunction; and lower extremity prosthetic use due to amputation. ♦