The Arm Line of Devices for Rehabilitation

In the modern scenario of neurological rehabilitation, which requires affordable solutions oriented toward promoting home training, the Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation (ITIA) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) developed a line of prototypal devices for the rehabilitation of the upper-limb, called -Arm. -Arm devices were conceived to promote rehabilitation at affordable prices but capturing all the main features of the state of the art devices. In fact, -Arm devices focus on the main features requested by a robot therapist: mechanical adaptation to the patient, ranging from passive motion to high transparency, assist-as-needed and resistive modalities; proper use of sensors for performance monitoring; easy-to-use, modular and adaptable design. These desirable features are combined with low-cost, additive manufacturing procedures, with the purpose of meeting the requirements coming from research on neuro-motor rehabilitation and motor control and coupling them with the recent breakthrough innovations in design and manufacturing.