Various robotic rehabilitation devices have been developed for acute stroke patients to ease therapist’s efforts and provide high-intensity training, which resulted in improved strength and functional recovery of patients; however, these improvements did not always transfer to the performance of activities of daily living (ADLs). This is because previous robotic training focuses on the proximal joints or training with exoskeleton-type devices, which do not reflect how humans interact with the environment. To improve the training effect of ADLs, a new robotic training paradigm is suggested with a parallel manipulator that mimics rotational ADL tasks. This study presents training of the proximal and distal joints simultaneously while performing manipulation tasks in a device named spherical parallel instrument for daily living emulation (SPINDLE). Six representative ADLs were chosen to show that both proximal and distal joints are trained when performing tasks with SPINDLE, as compared to the natural ADLs. These results show that SPINDLE can train individuals with movements similar to the ADLs while interacting with the manipulator. We envision using this compact tabletop device as a home-training device to increase the performance of ADLs by restoring the impaired motor function of stroke patients, leading to improved quality of life.

已经为急性中风患者开发了各种机器人康复设备，以减轻治疗师的努力并提供高强度训练，从而提高了患者的力量和功能恢复；但是，这些改进并不总是转移到日常生活活动（ADL）的执行上。这是因为以前的机器人培训主要集中在近端关节或使用外骨骼型设备进行的培训，而这不能反映人类与环境的互动方式。为了提高ADL的训练效果，提出了一种新的机器人训练范例，它采用了模仿旋转ADL任务的并行操纵器。这项研究提出了在称为球形平行器械的日常生活仿真设备（SPINDLE）中执行操作任务的同时，对近端和远端关节的训练。选择了六个有代表性的ADL，以显示与自然ADL相比，使用SPINDLE执行任务时，近端和远端关节均得到了训练。这些结果表明，SPINDLE可以在与机械手交互时训练与ADL相似动作的个人。我们设想将这种紧凑型台式设备用作家庭训练设备，以通过恢复中风患者运动功能受损的方式来提高ADL的性能，从而改善生活质量。