Sarah Richardson: Developing Exoskeleton Controlled Virtual Reality Games for Rehabilitation

Stroke rehabilitation often requires several hour sessions with a physical therapist three to six times a week. Additionally, patients have trouble keeping up with boring and redundant exercises they are assigned to do home. This summer I developed a set of virtual reality games that could provide a more entertaining way to do the exercises with less assistance from a physical therapist.

The games are controlled by interactions with a virtual arm whose movements match a robotic exoskeleton arm. The arm is used in a variety of games that test and exercise the arm's range of motion and ability to position the arm. For example, one of the games allows a physical therapist to test the range of motion of each joint. To extend a patient's range of motion, a pong game is controlled by moving the racquet back and forth based on the movement of a joint. Other games help the user to practice line movement and circular movement, eventually with help from the hardware to teach them how to do the movements.