Haptically-enabled devices for neurological rehabilitation of hand and wrist disabilities
| dc.contributor.author | Olynyk, Michael Alexander | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Szturm, Tony (Physical Therapy) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Luo, Yunhua (Mechanical Engineering) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Sepehri, Nariman | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-10-13T19:49:24Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-10-13T19:49:24Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2022-09-22 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-09-22 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2022-09-22T22:11:05Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Mechanical Engineering | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science (M.Sc.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Successful rehabilitation of individuals impaired by neurological disabilities is a critical endeavor as patients will otherwise be unable to care for themselves. This situation results in decreases in both functional independence and overall quality of life for the individual, which in turn can cause negative emotional effects. As with all rehabilitative therapies, a variety of safe, appropriate, stimulating, and relevant activities must be available, otherwise patients will become disinterested and therefore non-compliant. The development of interactive programs utilizing commercially available haptic equipment will allow for the introduction of a novel set of rehabilitative exercises which will improve upper extremity fine motor skills. The final developed products will additionally facilitate precise evaluation and monitoring of the patients’ functions and progress as well as providing a more stimulating environment for the patient. This will allow for deficiencies to be detected promptly and subsequently precisely addressed as well as providing valuable motivation to the patients. This thesis’s intention was to develop novel robotically manipulandum enhanced equipment to aid in neurological diagnostic and rehabilitative exercises. The developed systems consist of two separate apparatuses, each with their own unique set of software tools and accompanying hardware. The first device is an extension to a pre-existing game developed on behalf of the College of Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of Manitoba for both diagnostic and rehabilitative neurological exercises. This tool acts as an interactive robotic interface for this currently utilized game, allowing for additional benefits, such as adding or removing additional difficulty to the gameplay. This increases overall patient engagement with the exercise in question. The second device is a stand-alone system allowing for tracing exercises to be undertaken in a robotically enhanced environment. This device allows for patients to practice the fine motor skills associated with writing without any external human assistance, while simultaneously aiding in the recovery or development of general fine motor skills. The necessary hardware for this robotically enhanced manipulandum tracing computer program consists of a portable lightweight passive fixture into which an unmodified and fully functional commercial haptic device can be temporary installed when desired. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | February 2023 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36946 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Neurological | en_US |
| dc.subject | Rehabilitation | en_US |
| dc.subject | Hand and wrist disabilities | en_US |
| dc.subject | Robotic Manipulandum | en_US |
| dc.subject | Haptic | en_US |
| dc.subject | Mechanical Engineering | en_US |
| dc.subject | Biomedical Engineering | en_US |
| dc.title | Haptically-enabled devices for neurological rehabilitation of hand and wrist disabilities | en_US |
| dc.type | master thesis | en_US |
| local.subject.manitoba | no | en_US |