A study to understand lead-lag performance of subject vs rehabilitation system

Abstract

Robotic assistance in stroke rehabilitation is rapidly advancing based on the recent developments in robotics, haptic interfaces and virtual reality. GENTLE/S is a rehabilitation system that utilized haptic and virtual reality technologies to deliver challenging and meaningful therapies to upper limb impaired stroke subjects. The current research is working towards designing GENTLE/A system with a better adaptive human-robot interface, which allows for automatic tuning of the assistance and resistance based on provided input. This paper presents the results from a preliminary study conducted with three healthy subjects as part of this research. The aim of the investigation is to explore whether it is possible to identify if a robot or a person is leading the interaction by comparing the results from the actual performance of the subject with the minimum jerk model used to drive the robot. The final goal is to use these observations to probe various ways in which the contribution of robot can be established and the adaptability of the robot during the therapy can be enhanced.