2P2-C03 Fundamental Study on Functional Evaluation of Rotator Cuff Using Three-Dimensional Force Display Robot(Rehabilitation Robotics and Mechatronics)

Abstract

The final aim of our research is to develop an evaluation system of function of rotator cuff quantitatively using the three dimensional force display robot. The rotator cuff is made up of four inner muscles that act to stabilize the shoulder. Because of inner muscles, it is difficult to perform function evaluation of rotator cuff directly. In this paper we perform three fundamental experiments to develop new evaluation methods of function of rotator cuff. In the evaluation methods isotonic force is measured in various positions of upper limb by using the force sensor of the robot, and muscular activity is measured by surface electromyography. The differences between the healthy shoulder and the affected shoulder were found by the new evaluation methods. As the results of experiments, the availability of the proposed methods is shown.