Portable Accelerometer-Based System for Aiding Elbow Extension in Post-Stroke Individuals

In this work, we design a wearable system providing control of elbow extension in hemiparetic individuals suffering from the post-stroke effects by stimulation of the triceps brachii muscle. Proposed system uses low-cost consumer grade MEMS accelerometer attached to the individual's forearm and measuring the tilt angle of the forearm relative to the gravity vector. Flexing the elbow above a predetermined threshold flexion angle triggers the triceps electrical stimulation. Among other things, the system is capable to transmit inertial data to external devices via Bluetooth. The operability of the system has been validated with healthy individuals and the results showed its potential as a tool for upper extremity rehabilitation after stroke.