Design and Assessment of Human-Inspired Socially Assistive Robotics for Tailored Rehabilitation Environments

Rehabilitation is crucial for human health and is increasingly supported by technology and robots. These technologies are widely used in research to develop and validate new therapies and assess rehabilitation outcomes. However, modern robotic rehabilitation faces limitations, such as focusing on specific pathologies, lacking adaptability for different contexts, and challenges in customizing treatments for individual patients. This work aims to develop a versatile system, adaptable to various patients and therapy contexts, enhancing its use across a range of therapies. Additionally, it seeks to incorporate social and personality features into the robotic system to boost patient engagement and satisfaction, making therapy more effective through social interaction. Another issue in current systems is their high specificity, often targeting physical over cognitive stimulation. A comprehensive approach addressing both physical and cognitive aspects, especially for Activities of Daily Living (ADL), is needed. Therefore, this work aims to integrate cognitive and physical stimulation within the same procedure, adjusting the difficulty of each component. The developed system, ROS-MCPyRe (ROS-based Manipulation for Cognitive and Physical Rehabilitation), emphasizes adaptability and extendability. It was iteratively developed and tested through various experiments, starting with a customizable robotic controller and social robotic movements. The system's optimal social cues for interaction were identified, and a rehabilitation task involving human-robot interaction was tested. Later phases included therapist interaction to adapt ongoing sessions and integrated both cognitive and physical elements in the same session. The results show significant promise, demonstrating the system's adaptability and effectiveness. A robotic arm with social cues successfully engaged individuals, and the combined cognitive and physical rehabilitation approach yielded positive results. Participant tests confirmed the feasibility of these procedures and opened up new research possibilities for future exploration.