A Review of Upper Limb Rehabilitation Robot

Sulaiman Mazlan, Hisyam Abdul Rahman*, Dirman Hanafi

Abstract

Stroke is a leading cause of upper limb disability, which can affect numerous daily activities that require reaching and manipulation movements. Stroke patient needs to undergo a rehabilitation process under the supervision of physiotherapists. Unfortunately, due to the limited availability of therapists, these processes also may be limited and required the assistance of robotic devices for a rehabilitation program. However, although researchers in the field of robotic rehabilitation have designed and developed numerous robotic devices, it still needs improvement in term of design complexity. This paper aims to review the design of upper limb rehabilitation robot for reaching and manipulation movements. The main issue to address and the proposed solution are also discussed in this paper to improve the robot design as efficient as existing complex robotic devices.