ELECTRICAL STIMULATION AND ROBOTIC-ASSISTED UPPER-LIMB STROKE REHABILITATION

Research into conventional therapy and motor learning theory provides evidence that the intensity of practice of a task and feedback are important for iterative control of health care. Iterative learning control (ILC) is one model-based approach to stroke rehabilitation that has progressed to a program of clinical trials, which constitute the first major stage towards the eventual transfer into practice. ILC exploits the repeating nature of the patients' tasks to improve performance by learning from past experience as compared with other approaches employed to control FES. ILC is able to respond to physiological changes in the system, such as spasticity and the presence of a patient's voluntary effort by updating the control input using data collected over previous attempts at the task. ILC can also closely regulate the amount of stimulation supplied, ensuring that minimum assistance is provided, promoting the patient's maximum voluntary contribution to the task completion.