Robotic devices for upper limb rehabilitation: A review

Robot-assisted rehabilitation has been extensively demonstrated to be effective in functional recovery, including improvement in gait and upper limb function for patients with stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease. Studies show that patients who are treated with robotic support, when necessary, recover faster and better than do those who are treated conventionally. Two types of rehabilitation robots, namely, exoskeleton-type and end effector-type robots, are used to provide robot-assisted upper limb rehabilitation therapy. This chapter discusses the design, control, and clinical study results of some notable exoskeleton-type and end effector-type rehabilitation robots for upper limb rehabilitation.