Design for the Lower Limbs. A Study for the Development of an Assistive Robotic System for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation After Stroke

Stroke is the first cause of disability and the second of death in Europe.

Given the wideness of the target of patients affected by it and the impossibility to reduce them in a sample, the study focused on the need of therapists to start the rehabilitation with bedridden patients that for different reasons cannot stand but have a good cognitive response: the lack of assistive devices for the rehabilitation for lying patients and the time needed for their discharge from a stroke unit to another ward are times of inactivity that can lead to a less effective recovery. The paper is the synthesis of a doctoral research in Design Sciences: based on the concept of neural plasticity and the possibility of complete recovery after stroke, a project concept has been built on technologically-driven dynamics of distraction, involving the patients in a flow heading to an optimal experience state, fostering the engagement through the gamification of the exercises and giving to the therapist the possibility to control and customize the levels of complexity of the stimulation. After an interdisciplinary desktop research, an on-field observation has been conducted to identify possible areas of intervention: attention has been given to the environment of use, the therapists as main users, the patients as secondary users and beneficiary of the interaction, the design and the usability of the system. The result is a design concept of an assistive robotic system for sensorimotor rehabilitation of lower limbs enhanced by a digital gaming and progress monitoring system.