Integrated Upper Limb Rehabilitation System (IULRS)

Collaborators

This project was done in collaboration with AWWA.

Overview

Digitizing rehabilitation devices and data collection as part of the AWWA Smart Center initiative.

Background

As part of their Smart Center initiative, AWWA aims to digitize their rehabilitation equipment to better keep track of client's exercises. This includes collecting data such as the number of repetitions, time taken, and other finer analytics to better assess performance, allowing occupational therapists to adjust exercise difficulty to match their client’s progress.

Key Problem(s)

Therapists need to keep track of many clients, sometimes simultaneously while clients are executing their prescribed exercises to ensure each repetition is done correctly for optimal rehabilitation results. This is physically taxing and challenging for therapists, especially if clients are spread across the center, making it difficult to keep a consistent eye on each client. Clients have a lack of motivation to execute exercises correctly, as they find it too difficult or tiring, occasionally slacking off when therapists are not looking. This impacts the overall rehabilitation progress of the clients.

There is also no central hub to track upper limb exercises executed by clients, as the equipment lacks digital capabilities to automatically transmit data. This potentially forms a gap between the client’s actual progress and the therapist’s understanding of their progress.

Objective

This project aims to achieve two goals. Firstly, upper limb rehabilitation equipment should be digitized such that data can be transmitted to a central database, which is accessible via an interface by therapists. Secondly, the equipment themselves can also be designed to be more motivating for clients to do their prescribed exercises correctly to the desired quantity.

Solution

Sensors and actuators will be fitted onto rehabilitation equipment, with gamification of each exercise to improve clients’ motivation to execute them correctly. Data from the equipment is transmitted to a central database and interface, where therapists can use to visualize and track each client’s progress.

Deployment and Usage

Full deployment of the upgraded devices is expected within AWWA by 2021.

Impact

Aside from enabling AWWA to achieve their Smart Center initiative, these devices can eventually be extended to other centers as well.

Project Contact

Team Members