Architectural Design of a Cloud Robotic System for Upper-Limb Rehabilitation with Multimodal Interaction

The rise in the cases of motor impairing illnesses demands the research for improvements in rehabilitation therapy. Due to the current situation that the service of the professional therapists cannot meet the need of the motorimpaired subjects, a cloud robotic system is proposed to provide an Internet-based process for upper-limb rehabilitation with multimodal interaction. In this system, therapists and subjects are connected through the Internet using client/server architecture. At the client site, gradual virtual games are introduced so that the subjects can control and interact with virtual objects through the interaction devices such as robot arms. Computer graphics show the geometric results and interaction haptic/force is fed back during exercising. Both video/audio information and kinematical/physiological data are transferred to the therapist for monitoring and analysis. In this way, patients can be diagnosed and directed and therapists can manage therapy sessions remotely. The rehabilitation process can be monitored through the Internet. Expert libraries on the central server can serve as a supervisor and give advice based on the training data and the physiological data. The proposed solution is a convenient application that has several features taking advantage of the extensive technological utilization in the area of physical rehabilitation and multimodal interaction.