BioRob 2022 Workshop #2
From in-clinic rehabilitation to home assistance: wearable robotics in the continuum of care
August 21st 9:30-15:15 (Korean Time)

Organizers: Emilio Trigili, Arturo Forner-Cordero, Simona Crea, Nicola Vitiello

Confirmed speakers:

  • Michelle J. Johnson, University of Pennsylvania, USA

  • Fabrizio Sergi, University of Delaware, USA

  • Hermano Igo Krebs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA

  • Marcia O'Malley, Rice University, USA

  • Robert Riener, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  • Lorenzo Masia, Heidelberg University, Germany

  • Ang Wei Tech, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

  • Sandra Hirche, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany

  • Laura Marchal-Crespo, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands


Registrations at this link:

http://biorob2022.org/registration.php

The high incidence of age-associated chronic diseases, including stroke, is causing a huge demand for physical and cognitive rehabilitation. The access to rehabilitation services has been restricted further after the COVID-19 pandemic, and a continuum of care from the hospitalization to the home assistance is not always guaranteed. Robotic technologies as wearable robots and virtual/augmented reality (AR/VR) system represent innovative solutions for movement assistance, monitoring and treatment, to support patients across different stages of recovery. The objective of this workshop is to discuss the current trends and challenges of integrating such technologies into the rehabilitation continuum of care. A multi-disciplinary group of experts and academic researchers will provide an overview of the latest advancements regarding the development of wearable robots and AR/VR systems for rehabilitation and home assistance, the use of robotics for quantitative clinical assessment, neuromechanical models and mechanisms of neuroplasticity in robot-aidedrehabilitation. After the presentations, a round table will be opened to synthetize current views and suggest future directions to guide the development of the next-generation devices to serve the continuum of care spectrum, focusing on their translation to the healthcare industry and real-world applications.

Workshop program:


First slot (Sun 21st August 9.30 – 11.45 KST):
Sun, 21st August 2:30 CEST (Central European Time)
Sat, 20th August 20:30 EDT (USA-East Coast)

  • Introduction (10 minutes)

  • Presentations (40 minutes)

    • Michelle J. Johnson (online): From in-clinic rehabilitation in high-resource settings to rehabilitation in low-resource settings. Case studies in implementation

    • Fabrizio Sergi (online): Modulation of propulsion mechanics during walking using belt accelerations and a lower extremity exoskeleton

  • Short Break (10 minutes)

  • Presentations (40 minutes)

    • Hermano Igo Krebs (online): Robotic Kinematic measures of the arm in chronic Stroke: part 1 – Motor Recovery patterns from tDCS preceding intensive training and part 2 – strong correlation with clinical outcome measures

    • Marcia O'Malley (online): Design and control of wearable robots for physical human-robot interaction

  • Round table #1 (40 minutes)

Second slot (13.00 – 15.15 KST):
Sun, 21st August 6:00 CEST (Central European Time)
Sun, 21st August 00:00 EDT (USA-East Coast)

  • Presentations (60 minutes)

    • Robert Riener (in person): Ten ingredients for Successful Robot-Aided Therapies

    • Lorenzo Masia (in person): Symbiotic Control of Wearable Soft Suits for human motion assistance and augmentation

    • Ang Wei Tech (online): Assistive Robots for Mobility

  • Short Break (10 minutes)

  • Presentations (40 minutes)

    • Sandra Hirche (online): Opportunities & Challenges for Control in Wearable Robotics based Rehabilitation & Assistance

    • Laura Marchal-Crespo (online): Towards Minimally Supervised Hyper-realistic Robotic Rehabilitation

  • Round table #2 (40 minutes)

Topics for the Round-Tables: From clinic to home assistance.

What are the barriers and challenges? (click here)

Prof. Fabrizio Sergi

To go beyond “repetitive task practice" during rehab therapy, and target desired changes in specific components / building blocks of motor function during rehabilitation therapy with rehabilitation robots (i.e. balance, propulsion, inter-limb coordination, symmetry, etc.), and then quantify the outcomes of therapy in the component trained, and how it generalizes to other components. As a field, I believe that we need to think a bit more carefully how interaction with rehabilitation robots stimulates the neuromuscular system, and what responses we expect to evoke, and how they will translate in improvements in motor function.

Prof. Marcia O'Malley

Cost.

Complexity of systems and need for specialized training to operate them.

All of this in the context of clinical findings being not that much better than traditional rehabilitation interventions.

Prof. Robert Riener

Developers do not listen to therapist and patients, or do not even include them in the development process.

We do not know yet, who are the responders. Inclusion criteria and therapy setting are much too broad.

Prof. Ang Wei Tech

While Rehab robots have clear advantage in productivity gain, there is no clear advantage versus conventional therapies in clinical outcome of patient’s recovery.

What are the solutions/groundbreaking pathways? (click here)

Prof. Robert Riener

Form an interdisciplinary team that comprises also therapists, physicians and patients

We need more clinical studies to find responders to tailor the therapy to the individual patients

Prof. Ang Wei Tech

Breakthrough in robot therapy clinical outcome is unlikely in the near future, but efforts can be made to improve the return of investment by making rehab robots simpler and cheaper