Unilateral and Bilateral Rehabilitation of the Upper Limb Following Stroke via an Exoskeleton

Abstract

Recent studies reported positive effects of bilateral arm training on stroke rehabilitations. The development of novel robotic-based therapeutic interventions aims at recovery of the motor control system of the upper limb, in addition to the increase of the understanding of neurological mechanisms underlying the recovery of function post stroke. A dual-arm upper limb exoskeleton EXO-UL7 that is kinematically compatible with the human arm is developed to assist unilateral and bilateral training after stroke. Control algorithms are designed and implemented to improve the synergy of the human arm and the upper limb exoskeleton. Clinical studies on the robot-assisted bilateral rehabilitations show that both the unilateral and bilateral training have a positive effect on the recovery of the paretic arm. Bilateral training outperforms unilateral training by a significant improvement of motion range and movement velocities.