Human-robot sensor interface for cardiac rehabilitation.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world. A program of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is related to physical activities or exercises to regain the optimal quality of life. CR relies on the necessity to evaluate, control and supervise a patient's status and progress. This work has two objectives: on the one hand, provide a tool for clinicians to assess the patient's status during CR. On the other hand, there is evidence that robots can motivate patients during therapeutic procedures. Our sensor interface explores the possibility to integrate a robotic agent into cardiac therapy. This work presents an exploratory experiment for on-line assessment of typical CR routines.