MAGNI: A Real-Time Robot-Aided Game-Based Tele-Rehabilitation System

During the last two decades, robotic rehabilitation has become widespread, particularly for upper limb physical rehabilitation. Major findings prove that the efficacy of robot-assisted rehabilitation can be increased by motivation and engagement, which is offered by exploiting the opportunities of gamification and exergaming. This paper presents a tele-rehabilitation framework to enable interaction between therapists and patients and is a combination of a graphical user interface and a high dexterous robotic arm. The system, called MAGNI, integrates a 3D exercise game with a robotic arm, operated by therapist in order to assign in real-time the prerecorded exercises to the patients. We propose a game that can be played by a patient who has suffered an injury to their arm (e.g. Stroke, Spinal Injury, or some physical injury to the shoulder itself). The experimental results and the feedback from the participants show that the system has the potential to impact how robotic physical therapy addresses specific patient’s needs and how occupational therapists assess patient’s progress over time.