A Novel Patient-Centered Robotic Rehabilitation Approach for Retraining Reaching and Grasping Functions for Individuals with Stroke.

This study introduces a novel robotic rehabilitation system for improving upper extremity function by retraining reaching and grasping in individuals with stroke. The system integrates a collaborative robotic arm equipped with a force sensor and gripper with functional objects to create a patient-centred approach that simulates real-world activities and stimulates sensorimotor activity during training sessions. The system constantly assesses the user's extent of reach and presents the individual objects as reaching and grasping targets at different positions within and slightly beyond the user's reach. Preliminary testing involved one participant without stroke and one individual with hemiplegia reaching and grasping 19 objects of various weights and textures. The results indicate that the participant without stroke reached objects in an average of 3.47 seconds with a mean grasping force of $3.28 \pm 0.05 ~\mathrm{N}$, while the participant with stroke took 5.66 seconds, with a mean of $1.04 \pm 0.02 ~\mathrm{N}$ exerted to grasp objects. Our findings suggest that the proposed robotic rehabilitation system may be suitable for improving reaching and grasping after stroke.