ROBOTICS IN HIP REHABILITATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A fracture, a car accident, extreme sports injuries, stroke, spinal cord injury, and degenerative diseases are just a few well-known examples that can cause physical disability in the hip. The hip rehabilitation is intense manual labor and time consuming effort, for this reason, the duration and quality of the therapies are reduced by medical personnel. This situation encourages the development of new robots to assist in the rehabilitation of the hip. Recent research in the development of robots for hip rehabilitation have shown that this field also carries many challenges that must be overcome to move towards new future devices. In the last decade, interest in this field has grown exponentially due to the success of the first systems and the growing increase in the number of patients. However, many potential researchers and rehabilitation experts do not know the current potential of robots to rehabilitate the hip. In this paper, a literature review of existing commercialized robots and under development in research centers focused on hip rehabilitation is presented. In addition, we compare the technical features of these robots in terms of their capabilities. Finally, the current challenges in mechanical design, clinical interfaces, sensors and control algorithms in order to show a clear point of departure in this field are presented. Keywords: hip fracture, hip rehabilitation, robotics, exoskeleton, hip rehabilitation robots