A Framework for the Study of Human-Robot Collaboration in Rehabilitation Practices

Collaborative robots and humans can cooperate in different industrial processes by combining their peculiar skills: the accuracy and repeatability of the manipulators can be exploited in synergy with human intelligence and flexibility. Since the cobots are safe and reliable, they can be adopted in the health sector, in particular in rehabilitation: the cobots allow the three-dimensional manipulation of the limbs and can be easily adapted to different anthropometric parameters. The kinematic models of the human-robot system presented in this paper can be exploited to develop motion planning algorithms for rehabilitation exercises. Furthermore, the estimation of the interaction forces in the human-robot interface can be obtained by multibody dynamic simulations. The proposed methodology is a starting point for the study of the integration of cobots into current rehabilitation practices, evaluating the feasibility and providing useful ideas in order to plan different man-robot working modalities.