Design of a new 5 d.o.f. wire-based robot for rehabilitation

In the last three years, a wire-based robot called the NeReBot (neurorehabilitation robot) was developed at the Robotics Laboratory of the Department of Innovation in Mechanics and Management, University of Padua, Italy. NeReBot is a 3 degrees-of-freedom (d.o.f.) wire-based robot, designed for the treatment of patients with stroke-related paralyzed or paretic upper limb during the acute phase. Although first clinical tests showed encouraging results in terms of motor recovery and functional outcome, the robot presented some limitations. Hence a new wire-based robot, called the MariBot (Marisa robot), was designed. The wire-drive philosophy, which makes the robot intrinsically safe, was maintained. Nevertheless, by changing the mechanical structure and adding two more d.o.f. the working space was enlarged significantly. Moreover, thanks to the improved mechanical design, MariBot results much lighter and less cumbersome than NeReBot. Finally, electronic hardware and control software were changed in order to improve man-machine interaction. In this paper, starting from the NeReBot experience, the design of MariBot is presented.