Augmented Reality Robotic System (VROOM)

Project Description

Principal Investigator: James L. Patton, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator: Robert Kenyon, Ph.D.

• Prolonged and intensive practice has a dramatic influence on recovery. Recent robotics studies have been encouraging but limited by the small and restricted movements that are possible with the devices used.
• To achieve significant practical applications in rehabilitation, human-interface robots must safely operate in three dimensions with a large workspace and an appropriately designed visual interface.
• No current system has all of these features.
• To develop and integrate a robot with an AR display system.
• To determine whether training with this system leads to better functional returns compared to conventional rehabilitation.
• To determine future design specifications.
• We will develop instrumentation that allows subjects to receive therapeutic forces while they view synthetic cues and feedback superimposed on the real world.
• A longitudinal study on chronic stroke survivors will test the system's ability to perform as well as or better than conventional therapy.
• This panel of stroke survivors and clinicians will provide subjective and objective measures of the system's ability to restore function.