Design and development of portable home based rehabilitation device

A constant monitoring process for arm rehabilitation activities is very significant to impart information of rehabilitation results to be analyzed by physical therapist. We propose here a new type of leg rehabilitation system. The aim of the system is to realize the multiple-degree-of-freedom (DOF) training of a leg by manipulating the patient's leg with wires. The majority of current portable orthotic devices and rehabilitative braces provide stability, apply precise pressure, or help maintain alignment of the joints without the capability for real time monitoring of the patient's motions and forces and without the ability for real time adjustments of the applied forces and motions. Improved technology has allowed for advancements where these devices can be designed to apply a form of tension to resist motion of the joint. The related studies to home-based rehabilitation process have shown improvement in promoting human movement recovery. Some previous studies regarding home-based rehabilitation process have shown improvement in promoting human movement recovery. However existing rehabilitation devices are expensive and need to be supervised by physical therapist. Some devices are not so efficient to be used at home due to large size and complexity. So this project aims to design and develop monitoring home-based device for arm rehabilitation. There are three basic units in designing this device which are sensory unit, main unit, and data logging unit. The sensory unit contains of flex sensor, five force sensitive resistors and accelerometer. Main unit is called data processing unit where this done by using Arduino Mega microcontroller. Data from Arduino is logged into PC to be shown in real time by Microsoft visual basic. Also data can be stored in SD card in excel file format to send it to doctors for analysis purpose. This device should be portable, affordable and determine a human movement analysis by determining the sensors characteristics