Mechatronic system to assist rehabilitation therapies for shoulder and elbow joints: Design, kinematic analysis, building and HMI

This work presents a novel application of a system to assist therapies during upper limb rehabilitation. The design and kinematic analysis of a device proposed is presented. Two mechanisms are driven by only one motor develop circular, arc and linear paths in order to move the shoulder and elbow joints in rehabilitation therapies. The first mechanism M1 position, velocity and acceleration are analyzed and its graphics respect to time are obtained. The main goal is to develop a mechatronic system which help to therapists during shoulder or elbow rehabilitation activities and be able to record the patient movements during the session. The methodology includes the study of art state, biomechanic analysis of shoulder and elbow joints, mechanism type selection and kinematic analysis in MATLAB® and its validation in ADAMS®. The main contribution is the proposal of an easy to use mechanism that develop three paths for upper limb rehabilitation. The amplitude and velocity of movements can be programmed, monitored and registered in a computational system and the information used to improve therapy.