Challenges in biocooperative rehabilitation robotics

Psychological states such as mood, motivation and engagement are known to be critical for the success of rehabilitation, and encouraging unmotivated stroke patients improves the likelihood of their eventual recovery. Psychological factors can be incorporated into the closed-loop control of biocooperative rehabilitation systems, augmenting the device with critical information about the patient state. However, in rehabilitation robotics, interpretation of psychophysiological measurements is made complex by the multi-task environment, the presence of strenuous physical activity and patient's damage to the central and autonomic nervous systems. The study examines these challenges and proposes possible solutions for implementation in biocooperative control of rehabilitation robots.