Title
Technical validation of an integrated robotic hand rehabilitation device: Finger independent movement, EMG control, and EEG-based biofeedback
Abstract
The objective of this work was to design and experiment a robotic hand rehabilitation device integrated with a wireless EEG system, going towards patient active participation maximization during the exercise. This has been done through i) hand movement actively triggered by patients muscular activity as revealed by electromyographic signals (i.e., a target hand movement for the rehabilitation session is defined, the patient is required to start the movement and only when the muscular activity overcomes a predefined threshold, the patient-initiated movement is supported); ii) an EEG-based biofeedback implemented to make the user aware of his/her level of engagement (i.e., brain rhythms power ratio Beta/Alpha). The designed system is composed by the Gloreha hand rehabilitation glove, a device for electromyographic signals recording, and a wireless EEG headset. A strong multidisciplinary approach was the base to reach this goal, which is the fruitful background of the Think and Go project. Within this project, research institutes (Politecnico di Milano), clinical centers (INRCA-IRCCS), and companies (ab medica s.p.a., Idrogent, SXT) have worked together throughout the development of the integrated robotic hand rehabilitation device. The integrated device has been tested on a small pilot group of healthy volunteers. All the users were able to calibrate and correctly use the system, and they reported that the system was more challenging to be used with respect to the standard passive hand mobilization session, and required more attention and involvement. The results obtained during the preliminary tests are encouraging, and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/RTSI.2016.7740598
2016 IEEE 2nd International Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Leveraging a better tomorrow (RTSI)
Keywords
Field
DocType
integrated robotic hand rehabilitation device,technical validation,finger independent movement,EMG control,EEG-based biofeedback,wireless EEG system,patient active participation maximization,muscular activity,target hand movement,rehabilitation session,patient-initiated movement,beta-alpha brain rhythms power ratio,Gloreha hand rehabilitation glove,electromyographic signals recording,wireless EEG headset,multidisciplinary approach,Think-and-Go project,INRCA-IRCCS clinical centers,integrated robotic hand rehabilitation device,calibration,standard passive hand mobilization session
Headset,Rehabilitation,Robotic hand,Power ratio,Simulation,Electromyography,Medical treatment,Physical medicine and rehabilitation,Engineering,Biofeedback,Electroencephalography
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-5090-1132-2
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
10