Research poster
Preliminary Evaluation of a Tongue-Operated Exoskeleton for Post-Stroke Upper Limb Rehabilitation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2017.09.044Get rights and content

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Research Objectives

To obtain data from able-bodied participants to evaluate the performance and functionality of the new Tongue-Operated Exoskeleton system, which translate the tongue gestures to control commands initiated by the user to train the upper limbs. We have developed a novel robotic upper limbs rehabilitation system by combining a wireless and wearable assistive technology, called the Tongue Drive System (TDS) with an exoskeleton robot, called the KINARMTM (KA).

Design

Case Series.

Setting

The setting is the general community.

Participants

10 able-bodied participants (Consecutive Sample, 7 males, 3 females, Ages 23-60).

Interventions

A small magnetic tracer (5mm in diameter and 1mm thick) was attached to near the tip of the tongue with oral adhesive. TDS headset worn over 3 hours of robotic rehabilitation, in which participants conducted four tasks, including: reaching, 1D speed-accuracy Fitts’ law, center-out tapping (2D speed-accuracy), and 1D tracking.

Main Outcome Measures

1D and 2D Fitts' law tasks: completion rate and throughput Reaching: completion rate and completion time Tracking: root mean square error.

Results

1D Fitts' law task: the completion rate was between 91% and 100%, and the throughput was between 0.93 to 5.14 bits/second across different modes of operation. 2D Fitts' law task: the completion rate was from 94% to 100%. The throughput was between 0.32 to 3.15 bits/second across different modes of operation. Reaching: the average completion rate was 100%. The average completion time was 2.3s. Tracking: the root mean square error is between 0.8 to 3.2 cm.

Conclusions

TDS-KA, the new tongue-operated robotic rehabilitation system was proven to be fully functional. The next step is to determine the effectiveness of this system in accelerating the rate of rehabilitation in patients with post-stroke upper limb impairments through a clinical study.

Key Words

Tongue Drive System, Stroke, Robotic Rehabilitation, Exoskeleton, Hemiplegia

Disclosures

NA.

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