RETRAINER: An Exoskeleton-Based Rehabilitation System for Stroke Patients

Stroke-induced hemiparesis may be difficult to recover from, but it doesn’t mean affected patients can’t benefit from a little help. Thanks to enhancements brought to an assistive framework initially developed under the MUNDUS project, they can now contemplate exoskeleton-assisted rehabilitation. Strokes are one of the biggest plagues facing European health care: each year, the cost associated with this condition reaches more than e62 billion. Patients face long-term dis- ability, and rehabilitation efforts leave the luckiest ones only with incomplete motor recovery. The main impairments af- fecting stroke patients include upper-limb hemiparesis, as well as—in 60% of cases—the inability to use their paretic hand in day-to-day activities. These two problems have been specifically addressed by the RETRAINER project, which focused on the task of reaching a position in space (arm rehabilitation) and that of grasping an object (hand rehabilitation).