J Korean Med Assoc.  2015 Feb;58(2):141-146. 10.5124/jkma.2015.58.2.141.

Use of robots in rehabilitative treatment

• Chang MC
• Chun MH

• KMID: 1958376
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2015.58.2.141

Abstract

Recently, rehabilitation robotics technology has advanced, and several therapeutic robots have been developed. Robot-assisted rehabilitation therapy has a number of advantages over manual physical therapy. It can relieve the physical therapist from the strenuous task of manual assistance and provide high-dosage and high-intensity training. Therapeutic rehabilitation robots include end-effector and exoskeleton types, which are mainly applied for rehabilitation of upper extremity motor dysfunction or gait disturbance. In addition, they are used for patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, parkinsonism, and cerebral palsy. Several studies have reported that robot-assisted therapy has a beneficial effect on motor function in patients with impaired motor function, either alone or as an additional therapeutic tool in combination with conventional rehabilitation therapy. We believe that ongoing improvement in robotic technology will help to overcome the disadvantages of conventional rehabilitation therapy and to optimize rehabilitation therapies for disabled patients.

Keyword

Robotics; Rehabilitation; Robot-assisted therapy

MeSH Terms

Brain Injuries
Cerebral Palsy
Gait
Humans
Parkinsonian Disorders
Physical Therapists
Rehabilitation
Robotics
Spinal Cord Injuries
Stroke
Upper Extremity

Figure

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  Figure 1 Robot assisted upper limb training using (A) MIT MANUS and (B) ARMin (From Krebs HI, et al. J Neuroeng Rehabil 2004;1:5, according to the Creative Commons license) [6].

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  Figure 2 Robot assisted gait training using (A) Lokomat (From Schuck A, et al. J Neuroeng Rehabil 2012;9:31, according to the Creative Commons license) [11], (B) Gait Trainer GT1 (From Werner C, et al. Stroke 2002;33:2895-2901, according to the Creative Commons license) [12], and (C) hybrid assistive limb (From Nilsson A, et al. J Neuroeng Rehabil 2014;11:92, according to the Creative Commons license) [13].

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