Development of an Active Balance Training Platform for a Gamified Physical Rehabilitation

Balance problems affect a large number of people, especially stroke survivors, and can manifest even in simple activities of their daily lives. This paper will present the development of a gamified balance training system by incorporating active motor control on a balance board and providing variable in-game settings to allow individualized therapy. Both hardware and game settings can be customized to match the balance capacity of the patient. Any movement of the balance board corresponds to the movement of the game avatar and is tracked by an inexpensive Inertial Measurement Unit, the MPU6050. A stepper motor is used to implement the effect of having an active control of the balance board. Hardware settings that can be customized are the maximum sway angle and sway stability of the balance board. While in-game settings that can be adjusted are duration, intensity, bias, limits, and assistance level. The reliability of the IMU measurements are proven even after 5 hours of continuous use.