Design and Simulation of a Soft Robotic Device for Muscle Rehabilitation and Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy.

Previous works have shown the efficacy of mechanical stimulation by applying pressure and vibration on muscle rehabilitation. Additionally, a temperature increase can improve both muscle performance and blood circulation during therapies. These modalities of treatment are commonly applied separately in patients with moderate disuse-induced muscle atrophy. In this paper, we propose the design of a novel medical device that synergistically integrates the function of i) elastomeric pneumatic actuators to apply focused orthogonal pressure, ii) vibratory motors to generate localized vibration and iii) carbon fibre heaters for a temperature increase. In particular, computational simulations were performed to characterize the mechanical behaviour of different pneumatic actuator geometries and their predicted advantages in comparison to previous designs. The integration of the three functionalities of the device and preliminary simulations results showcase its potential for improving therapy efficacy, while also being compact, lightweight, and comfortable, which would ease its implementation in rehabilitation programs.Clinical relevance- Disuse-induced muscle atrophy and related cardiovascular problems can lead to physical impairment and significantly affect patient independence. The surge in the number of hospitalized and bedridden patients related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) brings about a predicted increase in the incidence of myopathies and muscle weakness. To attend the growing demand, technological aids for more efficient physical therapies will need to be developed.

Playing the piano with a robotic third thumb: assessing constraints of human augmentation.

Contemporary robotics gives us mechatronic capabilities for augmenting human bodies with extra limbs. However, how our motor control capabilities pose limits on such augmentation is an open question. We developed a Supernumerary Robotic 3rd Thumbs (SR3T) with two degrees-of-freedom controlled by the user's body to endow them with an extra contralateral thumb on the hand. We demonstrate that a pianist can learn to play the piano with 11 fingers within an hour. We then evaluate 6 naïve and 6 experienced piano players in their prior motor coordination and their capability in piano playing with the robotic augmentation. We show that individuals' augmented performance with the SR3T could be explained by our new custom motor coordination assessment, the Human Augmentation Motor Coordination Assessment (HAMCA) performed pre-augmentation. Our work demonstrates how supernumerary robotics can augment humans in skilled tasks and that individual differences in their augmentation capability are explainable by their individual motor coordination abilities.