An Apparatus for Precise Data Collection from Stroke Patients

One out of 20 deaths in America are caused by stroke; on average, American suffers from stroke every 40 seconds. For those that survive, physical therapy can cost up to 17,000 dollars during the first year of rehabilitation, and can take months to years to complete. Overall, Americans pay 34 billion dollars for rehabilitation. Research is being conducted around the world in order to improve rehabilitation outlooks as well as decrease the time and money necessary. At the Laboratory for Computational Motor Control (LCMC), researchers study motor learning in human subjects by having participants manipulate a robotic arm in order to perform various movement and holding tasks. Data such as force, velocity, and position are collected and analyzed during these experiments so that models can be generated to characterize motor control in humans. For participants with stroke, these results are often noisy or impossible to collect due to their symptoms. In order to improve data collection, we will design a non-invasive apparatus to attach to the robotic arm in order to aid patients during the use of the robotic arm by accommodating for their physical impairments. This will lead to the generation of improved models of stroke patient motor control that will lay the groundwork for innovations in faster and cheaper rehabilitation strategies.