Page 260 - Control Theory in Biomedical Engineering

236 Control theory in biomedical engineering

depends on one-on-one physical interaction with the therapist (Poli et al.,
2013; Demircan et al., 2020). As cases of ULD are increasing, robot-aided
therapeutic intervention has the potential to be an effective solution in this
regard. Moreover, there are recent studies corroborating that repetitive
robot-assisted rehabilitation programs decrease upper limb motor impair-
ment significantly (Amirabdollahian et al., 2007; Gandolfi et al., 2018; Veer-
beek et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2017; Sale et al., 2014; Yoo and
Kim, 2015). Robot-aided therapy has advantages over conventional manual
therapy, as the former is capable of providing therapy to patients for a longer
period of time, is a more precise training method, and results in better quan-
titative feedback (Teasell and Kalra, 2004). There are two kinds of robot-
aided rehabilitative devices based on the mapping of a device’s joint onto
human anatomical joints (e.g., end-effector type and exoskeleton type).
End-effector-type devices (e.g., MIT-MANUS-commercialized as Inmo-
tion as shown in Fig. 1A(Hogan et al., 1992; Krebs et al., 2007, 2016), Gen-
tle/S (Coote et al., 2008), ARM Guide (Reinkensmeyer et al., 2000)) are
suitable for end-point exercises as they are unable to provide individual joint
movement, meaning they cannot map onto human anatomical joints.
Exoskeleton type devices have advantages over end-effector-type
devices, as they have complete control over a patient’s individual joint
movement and applied torque, better guidance of motion, relatively larger
range of motion (ROM), and better quantitative feedback. To date numer-
ous research prototypes of exoskeletons have been developed for human

Fig. 1 End-effector-type device for upper limb rehabilitation. (A) Inmotion ARM; (B) MIT-
MANUS (Krebs et al., 2007). ((A) Courtesy to Bionik Lab.)