ROBMIT

ROBotic MIrrored Therapy after stroke

01/07/2023 to 30/06/2026

The rationale for the ROBMIT proposal stems from the almost total absence of reliable methodologies in the clinical rehabilitation field that can provide clinicians with an accurate robotic tool to enhance the classic so-called mirror therapy. We will present our new approach named Robot Aided Mirror Therapy (RAMT): the technique additionally provides visual feedback of the impaired moving arm, not only a virtual reflection, as well as the generation of haptic rendering (Robot-Aided Mirror Haptic Therapy (RAMHT), which is essential in clinical rehabilitation to restore upper limb functionality.
We propose an approach based on a novel software, conceived and designed by one of the PIs, consisting of a haptic interface for the bimanual robotic exoskeleton. Previous research has shown that this approach allows to render haptic feedback in virtual environments and give healthy users a sense of physical interaction in a rehabilitation robotic device. The software was exemplarily tested on the rehabilitation device ALEx-RS, but the is generalizable and can be extended to several other devices, and we believe it can represent an extremely versatile platform.
In the here proposed project, we will transfer this approach to a rehabilitation paradigm and test its clinical efficacy on rehabilitation after stroke. We expect that robotic mirrored therapy will activate proprioceptive sensory organs and therefore increase the efficacy over traditional mirror therapy.