Design of an Auxiliary Device for Home-based Stroke Rehabilitation

Home-based rehabilitation is playing a significant role in patients with stroke after leaving hospital as an accessible rehabilitation approach. This paper proposes a home-based rehabilitation auxiliary device used with wheelchair for patients after stroke, especially those with lateral asymmetry in upper limbs. This device relies on an electrical system to track the movement of the patient's upper limb on the dominant side to drive the weaker side's movement. Design concept, interaction design process, and results are demonstrated in detail in this paper to illustrate the novel auxiliary device design for rehabilitation. This design provides a new way for upper limb training for patients with rehabilitation at home. Moreover, further exploration of integrating a virtual reality game with this device is also presented for increasing the user's motivation in training.