RiceWrist Robot Helps Spinal-Cord Injury Victims
From: NASA Tech Briefs Insider - 04/19/2011

A robot, called the RiceWrist, is a fully articulated exoskeleton that mimics
the joints of a patient's limb from shoulder to hand. The device will be the
centerpiece of human trials to prove its value as a tool that gently retrains
the motor neuron pathways of spinal-cord injury victims. 

Professor Marcia O'Malley's lab developed the RiceWrist with a fully
customizable "assist-as-needed architecture" that allows patients to complete
a task to the best of their ability, but also takes over a task when the
patients reach their limit. Currently, the therapist dictates the degree of
assistance; future iterations of the control architecture will automate the
assistance level provided based on real-time performance assessment. 

"We want the patients to move independently," said O'Malley, an associate
professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and director of
Rice University's Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Laboratory. "When
they're unable to complete a movement or reach the end of a workspace, the
robot kicks in. But the literature supports the idea that there needs to be
some intentional movement to really reap the rewards of rehabilitation."  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=15633&SnID=471085667

Links:
Neuroprosthetics and Solutions for Restoring Sensorimotor Functions
http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/7873

RiceWrist (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMUSUkDNUGE

RiceWrist (photo)
http://www.media.rice.edu/images/media/NEWSRELS/0404_HAND.jpg

The RiceWrist: A distal upper extremity rehabilitation robot for stroke therapy
http://mahilab.rice.edu/node/46

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

Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab - Research Projects
http://mahilab.rice.edu/research