The “Arm” Line of Devices for Neurological Rehabilitation

Author(s):  
Alessandro Scano ◽  
Andrea Chiavenna ◽  
Tito Dinon ◽  
Alessio Prini ◽  
Giulio Spagnuolo ◽  
...  

In the modern scenario of neurological rehabilitation, which requires affordable solutions oriented toward promoting home training, the Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation (ITIA) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) developed a line of prototypal devices for the rehabilitation of the upper limb, called “Arm.” Arm devices were conceived to promote rehabilitation at affordable prices by capturing all the main features of the state-of-the-art devices. In fact, Arm devices focus on the main features requested by a robot therapist: mechanical adaptation to the patient, ranging from passive motion to high transparency, assist-as-needed and resistive modalities; proper use of sensors for performance monitoring; easy-to-use, modular, and adaptable design. These desirable features are combined with low-cost, additive manufacturing procedures, with the purpose of meeting the requirements coming from research on neuro-motor rehabilitation and motor control and coupling them with the recent breakthrough innovations in design and manufacturing.

2020 ◽  
pp. 394-423
Author(s):  
Alessandro Scano ◽  
Andrea Chiavenna ◽  
Tito Dinon ◽  
Alessio Prini ◽  
Giulio Spagnuolo ◽  
...  

In the modern scenario of neurological rehabilitation, which requires affordable solutions oriented toward promoting home training, the Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation (ITIA) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) developed a line of prototypal devices for the rehabilitation of the upper limb, called “Arm.” Arm devices were conceived to promote rehabilitation at affordable prices by capturing all the main features of the state-of-the-art devices. In fact, Arm devices focus on the main features requested by a robot therapist: mechanical adaptation to the patient, ranging from passive motion to high transparency, assist-as-needed and resistive modalities; proper use of sensors for performance monitoring; easy-to-use, modular, and adaptable design. These desirable features are combined with low-cost, additive manufacturing procedures, with the purpose of meeting the requirements coming from research on neuro-motor rehabilitation and motor control and coupling them with the recent breakthrough innovations in design and manufacturing.


Author(s):  
José Capmany ◽  
Daniel Pérez

Programmable Integrated Photonics (PIP) is a new paradigm that aims at designing common integrated optical hardware configurations, which by suitable programming can implement a variety of functionalities that, in turn, can be exploited as basic operations in many application fields. Programmability enables by means of external control signals both chip reconfiguration for multifunction operation as well as chip stabilization against non-ideal operation due to fluctuations in environmental conditions and fabrication errors. Programming also allows activating parts of the chip, which are not essential for the implementation of a given functionality but can be of help in reducing noise levels through the diversion of undesired reflections. After some years where the Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuit (ASPIC) paradigm has completely dominated the field of integrated optics, there is an increasing interest in PIP justified by the surge of a number of emerging applications that are and will be calling for true flexibility, reconfigurability as well as low-cost, compact and low-power consuming devices. This book aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to this emergent field covering aspects that range from the basic aspects of technologies and building photonic component blocks to the design alternatives and principles of complex programmable photonics circuits, their limiting factors, techniques for characterization and performance monitoring/control and their salient applications both in the classical as well as in the quantum information fields. The book concentrates and focuses mainly on the distinctive features of programmable photonics as compared to more traditional ASPIC approaches.


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