A pilot clinical study on robotic assisted rehabilitation in VR with an arm exoskeleton device

The development of new robotic devices for rehabilitation can lead to new and more efficient therapeutic procedures. Moreover, the use of VR-based scenarios in which patients perform rehabilitation exercises dramatically increases the patients' motivation and thus the final therapy outcome. In this paper preliminary results of a pilot study carried out with an exoskeleton for the robotic assisted rehabilitation of the upper limb are presented. The paper briefly describes the main kinematic and mechanical features of the exoskeleton system, showing its peculiar characteristics which make it useful for rehabilitation purposes. The implementation of three different robotic schemes of therapy in virtual reality with this exoskeleton, based on an impedance control architecture, are presented and discussed in detail. Finally, qualitative and quantitative results obtained in a 6 week pilot study with three chronic stroke patients are reported.