A low-cost biomechatronic system for the restoration and assessment of upper limb motor function in hemiparetic subjects

Quantity, duration, content, and intensity of training sessions are very important in order to increase the efficacy of neurorehabilitation. Unfortunately, when traditional therapy is provided in a hospital or rehabilitation center, the patient is usually seen for few hours a week. Robot-mediated therapies could improve this situation. The aim of this work was to verify the possibility of improving motor recovery of hemiparetic subjects by using a simple mechatronic system. To achieve this goal, our system (named "MEchatronic system for MOtor recovery after Stroke" (MEMOS)) has been designed with the aim of using mainly "off-the-shelf products" with only few parts simply manufactured with standard technology, when commercial parts were not available. The MEMOS system has been used during clinical trials with subjects affected by chronic hemiparesis. The results obtained during these experiments seem to show that notwithstanding the simple mechatronic structure characterizing the MEMOS system, it is able to help chronic hemiparetics to reduce their level of impairment. Further clinical experiments with acute and chronic subjects will be carried out in order to confirm these preliminary findings.