Jafari Nooshin, Adams Kim, Tavakoli Mahdi, Wiebe Sandra, Janz Heidi
a Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine , University of Alberta , Edmonton , Canada.
b Aleksandar Kostov Assistive Technology Laboratory, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital , Edmonton , Canada.
Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol. 2018 Aug;13(6):517-522. doi: 10.1080/17483107.2017.1344884. Epub 2017 Jul 4.
This paper presents a novel application of an assistive robotic system with virtual assistance to enhance manual performance of individuals with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy affects one's voluntary motor movements resulting in limited opportunities to actively engage in physical manipulative activities that require fine motor movements and coordination. Lack of object manipulation and environmental exploration can result in further impairments such as cognitive and social delays. The proposed assistive robotic system has been developed to enhance hand movements of people with disabilities when performing a functional task colouring. This paper presents the usability testing of the effectiveness of the developed system with an individual with cerebral palsy in a set of colouring tasks. Assisted and unassisted approaches were compared and analysed through quantitative and qualitative measures. The robotic-based approach was further compared with the participant's typical alternate access method to perform the same proposed tasks. The robotic system with virtual assistance was clinically validated to be significantly more effective, compared to both unassisted and typical approaches, by increasing the hand controllability, reducing the physical load and increasing the easiness of maintaining movements within the lines. Future studies will inform the use of the system for children with disabilities to provide them with assisted play for functional and playful activities. Implications for rehabilitation Robotic system can enhance manual performance in individuals with disabilities. Participating in a robot-mediated play activity could increase children's motivation and engagement. The developed robotic system can contribute to a basis for clinical and home-based implementation of the technology to promote manual play activities for children with disabilities.
本文介绍了一种具有虚拟辅助功能的辅助机器人系统的新颖应用，以提高脑瘫患者的手动操作能力。脑瘫会影响人的自主运动，导致参与需要精细运动和协调能力的物理操作活动的机会有限。缺乏物体操作和环境探索会导致进一步的损伤，如认知和社交延迟。所提出的辅助机器人系统旨在提高残疾人在执行功能性填色任务时的手部动作。本文介绍了针对一名脑瘫患者在一组填色任务中对所开发系统有效性的可用性测试。通过定量和定性措施对辅助和非辅助方法进行了比较和分析。基于机器人的方法还与参与者执行相同提议任务的典型替代访问方法进行了比较。与无辅助方法和典型方法相比，具有虚拟辅助功能的机器人系统在临床验证中被证明显著更有效，它提高了手部可控性，减轻了身体负荷，并增加了在线条内保持动作的轻松程度。未来的研究将为该系统在残疾儿童中的应用提供信息，为他们提供功能性和趣味性活动的辅助游戏。对康复的启示机器人系统可以提高残疾人的手动操作能力。参与机器人介导的游戏活动可以增加儿童的动机和参与度。所开发的机器人系统可为该技术在临床和家庭中的应用奠定基础，以促进残疾儿童的手动游戏活动。
