The development of an antigravity arm to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke patients

Abstract

[Abstract]: This project shows that it is possible to design and develop a low cost anti gravity arm to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke patients that can interact in a three dimensional virtual reality environment. The study focuses on the development of a passive, natural movement device to maximise the muscles exercised while reducing the complexity and cost of the device. A prototype anti gravity arm was manufactured. The prototype’s effectiveness was tested with the use of tension bands to provide the motive force in reducing the effects of gravity. It is demonstrated that the anti gravity arm provides a reduction in the effort required by the patient to move their arm thereby providing a stroke patient suffering hemiparesis the ability to exercise their arm. It is shown through previous studies that exercise of the affected arm is the leading contributor to rehabilitation. The use of forward kinematics demonstrates that it is possible to translate the movement of the anti gravity arm into movement within a virtual world. The project shows that the real world movements can be correctly interpreted by the device and projected onto a computer monitor allowing the movement of a virtual hand within a virtual room. Analysis of the results shows a favourable correlation between the movement of the anti gravity arm and the expected movements depicted within the virtual environment. By reducing the effort required to move a patient’s arm and providing the mechanism to depict this movement within a virtual environment, the project has indicated that that a low cost anti gravity arm may be an effective solution in rehabilitation therapy.