Development of a haptic teleoperation system for remote motor and functional evaluation of hand in patients with neurological impairments

The use of haptic devices in rehabilitation is becoming rather popular, given the proven effectiveness of such devices in stimulating the proprioceptive and tactile sensing of the users. In a standard framework, such devices are used in a local scenario, where the patient interacts with virtual manipulation experiments, presented on a computer screen. In this paper, we propose an extension of this standard approach by allowing the therapist to remotely interact with the patient, in order to remotely assess the degree of progress (or recovery) and, in turn, properly design new rehabilitation exercises. We apply the proposed concept on single d.o.f., bilateral system, based on two hand orthosis, one used as a master device by the therapist and the other applied to the patient's hand. By using the master device (which incorporates a hand prosthesis, to make the manipulation more realistic), the therapist can remotely move the patient's hand and, at the same time, thanks to the bilateral force feedback, he/she can perceive the patient's resistance to the motion, allowing the remote motor and functional evaluation of the hand.