Robotic device offers physiotherapy to aid the recovery of stroke patients

The Advanced upper-Limb Autonomous Neuro-rehabilitation uses six motors and a networked control system

A robotic physiotherapy arm developed by engineers at the University of Leeds has won a global award and is set to be commercialised for use at home.

The Advanced upper-Limb Autonomous Neuro-rehabilitation (Alan) is a robotic arm that uses six motors and a networked control system to recreate the movements and force a physiotherapist would use when treating a patient. 

The control system can either run prerecorded sets of movements for guided treatment or replicate the movements of both physiotherapist and patient via the internet to provide remote ‘teletherapy’.

Currently, 85% of people in the UK who survive a stroke are left with some degree of arm paresis. After five years a quarter of these people still have difficulty using their arm, resulting in high costs for the NHS. Justin Gallagher, researcher at the University of Leeds, who worked on the project, said: “Traditional physiotherapy devices can still be pretty rudimentary and there is a strain on physiotherapy services in the NHS. The Alan arm could help relieve this, while ensuring patients perform the physio they are supposed to between sessions.”

Motors are mounted at three points to enable the robotic arm to move through three dimensions. A National Instruments Compact Rio system performs 10,000 calculations a second to translate either prerecorded or transmitted data into movement in the robotic arm. 

The team has combined the Alan arm with a simple video game, which guides the patient through a set of physiotherapy movements. The therapist can monitor performance and usage at their office.

The NHS-funded project has so far conducted two clinical trials. Gallagher said stroke patients showed improvements after eight weeks of use.  

Martin Levesley, professor of dynamics and control at the University of Leeds, said: “Alan could be used for telephysiotherapy. There are also a lot of robotic physiotherapy systems in development, and Alan could be used to perform the clinical trials for these devices faster.”