A force-feedback exoskeleton for upper-limb rehabilitation in virtual reality

Abstract

This paper presents the design and the clinical validation of an upper-limb force-feedback exoskeleton, the L-EXOS, for robotic-assisted rehabilitation in virtual reality (VR). The L-EXOS is a five degrees of freedom exoskeleton with a wearable structure and anthropomorphic workspace that can cover the full range of motion of human arm. A specific VR application focused on the reaching task was developed and evaluated on a group of eight post-stroke patients, to assess the efficacy of the system for the rehabilitation of upper limb. The evaluation showed a significant reduction of the performance error in the reaching task (paired t-test, p < 0.02).

Keywords:

• exoskeleton
• rehabilitation robotics
• virtual reality

Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded under a research grant by the Fondazione Monte Paschi Siena and by the IP SKILLS research project, funded by the European Commission. The authors acknowledge the contributions of Fabrizio Rocchi, Alberto Montagner and Luigi Borelli to this work.