Default | NEWS

4/23/2009

Students engineer rehab robots to help stroke patients

BY ROB CAHILL
Special to the Rice News

While it doesn’t look like R2-D2 or the other robotic stars of the silver screen, an assistive robotic device designed and built by Rice undergraduate engineering students to help stroke and spinal cord injury survivors could be an even bigger hit.

Armed with a scissor-like claw, Rice's remote-controlled prototype can rove about and perform a variety of functions, including moving a glass of water or snatching a pen off the floor.

	COURTESY PHOTO
	From left, Rice engineering students Christine Moran, Claire Krebs, Beth Rowan, David Meyer and Austin Mueller designed and built an assistive robotic device as a senior project at Rice’s new Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen.

The Rice team and another from the University of Texas-Austin were recruited to design and build robots to perform everyday tasks for patients recovering from diseases that affect their motor skills and to give the patients exercise in the process.

Working at Rice's new Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, the Rice team includes bioengineering students Christine Moran, Martel College, and Austin Mueller, Hanszen College, and mechanical engineering students Claire Krebs, Hanszen College; Beth Rowan, Martel College; and David Meyer, Baker College. Advising the team is Marcia O’Malley, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Rice. Also working with the students is Maria Oden, professor in the practice of engineering and director of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen.

Two faculty members in the Laboratory of Adaptive Technologies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston are coaching the teams. They are Lex Frieden, head of the lab at the University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston and senior vice president at TIRR Memorial Hermann, and Catherine Ambrose, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the UT Medical School at Houston.                    

“This is brand new,” said Frieden. “We are using the creative genius of young people to help stroke patients continue their rehabilitation at home.”

Every year, about 700,000 people in the United States are confronted by new or recurrent strokes, and many have to relearn everyday tasks such as picking up a piece of fruit or opening a cabinet.

This is where assistive robotic devices can help. To manipulate their remote-controlled robot, Rice team members use an instrument designed by O'Malley called an exoskeleton. In a rehab setting, this device would be attached to one of the patient’s arms. Using the exoskeleton, caregivers could help patients build endurance by gradually increasing the range of motion and the amount of exertion required to operate the robot.

"Our goal is to motivate people with neurological diseases to continue their rehab at home," Ambrose said. "We're looking at these devices as motivational tools."

Before the students started the project, they conferred with people recovering from stroke or spinal cord injuries at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation hospital in the Texas Medical Center, and with the physical therapists who care for these patients.

“We learned a lot about the issues involved,” Krebs said. “These are complicated conditions and take a long time to recover from.”

Both the Rice and UT prototypes are equipped with lifts designed to raise a grabber to the height of a table for easy access to glasses, utensils and dishes, which is no easy task. Their maximum height is around 3 feet.

The Rice prototype rolls on treads similar to those on a tank and is less than 20 inches tall and about 18 inches by 18 inches at the base.

The UT student design team outfitted their robot with a video camera so it can be dispatched to other rooms of a house.

Once the projects are completed, Frieden said, tests will be organized to see how well the prototypes work on patients in a real-world environment.