Methods of Motion Assessment of Upper Limb for Rehabilitation Application

The aim of this paper is to describe methods proposed for motion capture subsystem of smart orthosis for quantitative evaluation of movement activity of upper limbs during a rehabilitation process carried out at a clinic or at home. To quantify the description of motion we used methods of evaluation of the relationship between measured variables and nonlinear methods. To test the functionality of the methods, we compared the movement of the dominant and non-dominant limbs, assuming cyclical and acyclic movement, to obtain the expected values for a healthy population. In accordance with the goal, a group of cyclic and non-cyclic movements common to the home environment were proposed. The movements were divided according to the activities performed during sitting, standing and walking. It was: pen writing, typing on the keyboard / using the mouse, eating with a spoon and eating a croissant combing, lifting weights, reading a book, etc. Twenty healthy subjects participated in the study. Four gyro-accelerometers (Xsens Technologies B.V.) attached to the forearms and upper arms of both upper limbs were used to record the upper limb movements. The results show that the calculated values of dominant and non-dominant limb parameters differ significantly in most movements. The motion capture subsystem which uses the proposed methods can be used to valuate the physical activity for quantification of the evaluation of the rehabilitation process, and thus, it finds use in practice.