Active rehabilitation training system for upper limb based on virtual reality

In this article, an active rehabilitation training system based on the virtual reality technology is designed for patients with the upper-limb hemiparesis. The six-axis inertial measurement unit sensors are used to acquire the range of motion of both shoulder and elbow joints. In order to enhance the effect of rehabilitation training, several virtual rehabilitation training games based on the Unity3D engine are designed to complete different tasks from simple level to complicated level. The purpose is to increase the patients’ interest during the rehabilitation training. The basic functions of the virtual rehabilitation task scenes are tested and verified through the single-joint training and the multi-joint compounding training experiments. The experimental results show that the ranges of motion of both shoulder and elbow joints can reach the required ranges of a normal human in the rehabilitation training games. Therefore, the system which is easy to wear, low cost, wireless communication, real-time data acquisition, and interesting virtual rehabilitation task games can provide an effective rehabilitation training process for the upper-limb hemiparesis at home.