Robotics Lab Helps Stroke Patients with Recovery
From: Rice University Press Release - 11/29/2007
By: Jade Boyd

Robotics engineers at Rice University will work with a local rehabilitation
hospital over the next two years to study the effectiveness of a PC-based
system in assisting stroke patients with their recovery. Experts at Rice's
Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Laboratory (MAHI) developed the prototype
rehabilitation system, which uses force-feedback technology to enable
patients to "feel" their environment in virtual reality. Patients can use the
joystick to move objects on a computer screen in a smooth and precise manner,
and their hands will be guided by the stick's ability to resist movements in
the wrong direction. "The computer can precisely measure how a patient
responds to every single exercise," says Marcia O'Malley, an assistant
professor of mechanical engineering and materials science who also serves as
the director of MAHI. "We hope to refine our system to allow patients to
recover faster and to allow therapists to more precisely monitor patients'
recovery." Cost will no longer limit the use of computer-controlled robots to
small-scale physical rehabilitation efforts in a few years, O'Malley says.
Also, patients have embraced the technology. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=10323

Marcia O'Malley
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~omalleym/
http://memsweb.rice.edu/people.cfm?doc_id=9649

Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Laboratory
http://www.mems.rice.edu/~mahi/

Robonaut Lends a Hand
http://www.rice.edu/sallyport/2004/spring/sallyport/robonaut.html

Touch the Future of Stroke Rehab
http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SS_MAG_jf2006_rehab

Shared Control for Robot-Assisted Training and Rehabilitation
http://www.me.iastate.edu/events-and-seminars/full-article/article/313/4225/1193938681.html

---

Robotic Rehab System
From: NASA Tech Briefer Insider Special Edition - 12/19/2007

Stroke patients normally undergo months of physical therapy to regain use of
their limbs. But robotics engineers at Rice University hope to speed the
recovery process by developing a joystick system to help patients improve
eye-to-hand coordination. 

The research effort, led by Rice's director of the Mechatronics and Haptic
Interfaces Laboratory, Marcia O'Malley, uses the concept of force feedback
technology - called "haptics" - to enable people to "feel" their environment
while in virtual reality. Haptic refers to the perception of touch, and in
the prototype rehab system, the joystick has motors that push the
stick-to-resist moves in the wrong direction. As a result, the patient's
hands are guided along the right path. Repetition of the exercise enables the
patient to precisely control objects on a PC screen. 

O'Malley noted that while researchers have used computer-controlled robots
for physical rehabilitation since the early 1990s, the technology has been
too costly to use on a large scale. She expects this will change over the
next few years as more patients embrace the technology. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=10323&SnID=2319883