British Universities Study Rehabilitation for Spinal Cord Injuries with Intelligent Exoskeleton Robot
By John J. Otrompke, JD for Medical Robotics Magazine
A team of research institutions in the United Kingdom are developing a new sort of rehabilitation robot. The prototype NeXOS system is designed to be an intelligent exoskeleton which can be instructed to remember and repeat specific limb movements which have been programmed by a physiotherapist.
“We specifically identified spinal cord injuries, and wanted to look at lower limb rehabilitation. These patients go through a process of needing a lot of passive movement, and a lot of them have incomplete lesions,” said Dr Sue Mawson, PhD, a researcher at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom.
The only robot currently available for rehabilitation in the UK is the Manus system, developed by MIT., according to Mawson.
Public funding for the NeXOS project was awarded in 2002, and the study began the following year, and was complete by 2006. Team members interviewed physiotherapists in designing the prototype.
Another feature of the robot is that physiotherapists can monitor their patient's progress from another location, such as non-clinical settings including their own homes, gyms and sports centers.
The NeXOS design is relatively low-cost and could be deployed over a large number of patients easily were it approved, according to David Bradley, PhD, professor of mechatronic systems at the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland.
Other collaborators include the University of Sheffield and Barnsley Teaching Hospitals.
A team of research institutions in the United Kingdom are developing a new sort of rehabilitation robot. The prototype NeXOS system is designed to be an intelligent exoskeleton which can be instructed to remember and repeat specific limb movements which have been programmed by a physiotherapist.
“We specifically identified spinal cord injuries, and wanted to look at lower limb rehabilitation. These patients go through a process of needing a lot of passive movement, and a lot of them have incomplete lesions,” said Dr Sue Mawson, PhD, a researcher at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom.
The only robot currently available for rehabilitation in the UK is the Manus system, developed by MIT., according to Mawson.
Public funding for the NeXOS project was awarded in 2002, and the study began the following year, and was complete by 2006. Team members interviewed physiotherapists in designing the prototype.
Another feature of the robot is that physiotherapists can monitor their patient's progress from another location, such as non-clinical settings including their own homes, gyms and sports centers.
The NeXOS design is relatively low-cost and could be deployed over a large number of patients easily were it approved, according to David Bradley, PhD, professor of mechatronic systems at the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland.
Other collaborators include the University of Sheffield and Barnsley Teaching Hospitals.
posted by John J. Otrompke | 10:56 AM
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