Socially assistive robotics for post-stroke rehabilitation.
BACKGROUND
Although there is a great deal of success in rehabilitative robotics applied to patient recovery post stroke, most of the research to date has dealt with providing physical assistance. However, new rehabilitation studies support the theory that not all therapy need be hands-on. We describe a new area, called socially assistive robotics, that focuses on non-contact patient/user assistance. We demonstrate the approach with an implemented and tested post-stroke recovery robot and discuss its potential for effectiveness.


RESULTS
We describe a pilot study involving an autonomous assistive mobile robot that aids stroke patient rehabilitation by providing monitoring, encouragement, and reminders. The robot navigates autonomously, monitors the patient's arm activity, and helps the patient remember to follow a rehabilitation program. We also show preliminary results from a follow-up study that focused on the role of robot physical embodiment in a rehabilitation context.


CONCLUSIONS
We outline and discuss future experimental designs and factors toward the development of effective socially assistive post-stroke rehabilitation robots.
Matarić
Maja J
MJ
Computer Science Department, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. mataric@usc.edu
Eriksson
Jon
J
Feil-Seifer
David J
DJ
Winstein
Carolee J
CJ
D001132:Arm / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017010:Reminder Systems; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis