Sobrepera Michael J, Lee Vera G, Garg Suveer, Mendonca Rochelle, Johnson Michelle J
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Department of General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, & Perception (GRASP), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
IEEE Robot Autom Lett. 2021 Apr;6(2):2946-2953. doi: 10.1109/lra.2021.3062349. Epub 2021 Feb 25.
With the shortage of rehabilitation clinicians in rural areas and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, remote rehabilitation (telerehab) fills an important gap in access to rehabilitation, especially for the treatment of adults and children experiencing upper arm disability due to stroke and cerebral palsy. We propose the use of a socially assistive robot with arms, a torso, and a face to play games with and guide patients, coupled with a telepresence platform, to maintain the patient-clinician interaction, and a computer vision system, to aid in automated objective assessments, as a tool for achieving more effective telerehab. In this paper, we outline the design of such a system, Lil'Flo, and present a uniquely large perceived usefulness evaluation of the Lil'Flo platform with 351 practicing therapists in the United States. We analyzed responses to the question of general interest and 5 questions on Lil'Flo's perceived usefulness. Therapists believe that Lil'Flo would significantly improve communication, motivation, and compliance during telerehab interactions when compared to traditional telepresence. 27% of therapists reported that they were interested in using Lil'Flo. Therapists interested in using Lil'Flo perceived it as having significantly higher usefulness across all measured dimensions than those who were not interested in using it.
由于农村地区康复临床医生短缺，以及新冠疫情持续，远程康复（telerehab）填补了康复服务获取方面的重要空白，特别是对于治疗因中风和脑瘫而导致上臂残疾的成人和儿童。我们提议使用一种带有手臂、躯干和面部的社交辅助机器人与患者玩游戏并指导患者，结合远程临场平台以维持医患互动，以及利用计算机视觉系统辅助进行自动化客观评估，以此作为实现更有效远程康复的一种工具。在本文中，我们概述了这样一个系统——Lil'Flo的设计，并在美国对351名执业治疗师进行了关于Lil'Flo平台的独特的大规模感知有用性评估。我们分析了对总体兴趣问题以及关于Lil'Flo感知有用性的5个问题的回答。治疗师们认为，与传统远程临场相比，Lil'Flo将显著改善远程康复互动过程中的沟通、积极性和依从性。27%的治疗师报告称他们有兴趣使用Lil'Flo。有兴趣使用Lil'Flo的治疗师认为它在所有测量维度上的有用性都显著高于那些没有兴趣使用它的治疗师。
