title: Design of a novel telerehabilitation system with a force-sensing mechanism.
abstract: Many stroke patients are expected to rehabilitate at home, which limits their access to proper rehabilitation equipment, treatment, or assessment by therapists. We have developed a novel telerehabilitation system that incorporates a human-upper-limb-like device and an exoskeleton device. The system is designed to provide the feeling of real therapist-patient contact via telerehabilitation. We applied the principle of a series elastic actuator to both the master and slave devices. On the master side, the therapist can operate the device in a rehabilitation center. When performing passive training, the master device can detect the therapist's motion while controlling the deflection of elastic elements to near-zero, and the patient can receive the motion via the exoskeleton device. When performing active training, the design of the force-sensing mechanism in the master device can detect the assisting force added by the therapist. The force-sensing mechanism also allows force detection with an angle sensor. Patients' safety is guaranteed by monitoring the motor's current from the exoskeleton device. To compensate for any possible time delay or data loss, a torque-limiter mechanism was also designed in the exoskeleton device for patients' safety. Finally, we successfully performed a system performance test for passive training with transmission control protocol/internet protocol communication.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Engineering, Kagawa University, 2217-20 Hayashi-cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa 761-0396, Japan. s13d505@stmail.eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Songyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering System, School of Life Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Convergence Medical Engineering System and Healthcare Technology, The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China. guo@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp.|Department of Intelligent Mechanical Systems Engineering, Kagawa University, Kagawa 761-0396, Japan. guo@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Shuxiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering System, School of Life Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Convergence Medical Engineering System and Healthcare Technology, The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China. gaobaofeng@bit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Baofeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Intelligent Mechanical Systems Engineering, Kagawa University, Kagawa 761-0396, Japan. hhirata@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.affiliation: Department of Intelligent Mechanical Systems Engineering, Kagawa University, Kagawa 761-0396, Japan. ishihara@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishihara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: closed-loop interaction control strategy; contact-less angle sensor; force sensor; force-sensing mechanism; inertia sensor; series elastic actuator; telerehabilitation system