Development of a wrist rehabilitation game with haptic feedback

Our hands are the primary body part to interact with objects around us and perform most daily activities. Consequently, a disability of the hand after a stroke or an injury is one of the most severe restrictions to an independent life. To regain the function of the hand, physical therapy is used. Since the resulting rehabilitation process is slow and exhausting, there is a demand to use technology to create a way for patients to train medical exercises independently. In this paper, a rehabilitation system is presented that allows the patient to independently train medical wrist exercises while playing a serious video game. To identify the requirements, an analysis of previous systems is presented. The designed system consists of a haptic robot with a mechanical support structure that records the hand movements and inputs them into the rehabilitation game. The wrist and forearm movements of flexion & extension, radial & ulnar deviation and supination & pronation can be trained through this. To allow for the biggest possible usability throughout the therapy process, haptic feedback is used to either support the patient’s movement or offer resistance, which especially allows the use of passive training in the early stages of therapy.

Subjects

Haptic robotics

Rehabilitation robotics

Serious video game

DDC Class

500: Science

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Development of a wrist rehabilitation game with haptic feedback