2017 Volume 29 Issue 4 Pages 128-138
Rehabilitation systems for upper limbs that use robotic or virtual reality (VR) technologies have been expected not only to enhance the recovery of the motor function but also to realize quantitative and reproducible evaluation and motivation. Especially for quantitative evaluation of dexterity, the rehabilitation systems can be superior to conventional evaluation methods, however, few relevant researches have been reported. We developed a new application for a 2-DOF passive type rehabilitation robot, which was designed as for improving dexterity and quickness of post stroke patients by repetitive reaching exercise applied virtual reality technics. The application was designed to combine quantitative evaluation and amusingness during training. In this paper, we verified whether they were realized and its habituation effect according to age span. The result showed some habituation effect and difference on age span, but also showed quantitativeness and reproducibility of the evaluation indices. Difference between age span can advance into grading function of the evaluation indices. Elder subjects showed large individual differences despite no serious paralysis induced by like cerebrovascular diseases. Nevertheless, because their data also showed normal distribution property, statistical treatment and scoring are expected for typical values of the evaluation indices. High amusingness property was verified with questionnaire data.
