A novel robotic device for knee rehabilitation improved physical therapy through automated process

Knee rehabilitation therapy is a very important process to recover function after knee injury or surgery. The treatment objective is to reduce knee adhesion and regain adequate joint motion and flexibility. The key to successful knee rehabilitation requires to perform exercises regularly and in a very controlled manner. An important part in knee rehabilitation is the patellar mobilization which is performed manually by the physical therapist. This paper presents the design and realization of a novel robotic device for knee rehabilitation, which has been developed to assist physical therapists during knee rehabilitation programs. The use of a robotic device for rehabilitation allows setting up and monitoring individual exercise programs as well as performing highly reproducible training sequences. The physical therapist adjusts the optimal therapy parameters depending on the patient's injury and pathology and supervises the training program in the first days after surgery. Afterwards, the patient is expected to repeat the exercise at home using the rehabilitation device. The robotic system is able to record all the settings and treatment values to monitor recovery progress. Initial tests in therapy centers have highlighted the benefits of using such an automatic device to improve the rehabilitation outcome and fasten overall healing.