Project Description: 

Stroke is a cardiovascular disease which causes severe physical disabilities. 1 in 4 adults will have a stroke in their lifetime making it the leading cause of disability in the US and around the world. Disabilities of the lower limb have a major impact on the quality of life of stroke patients. These disabilities prevent standing, walking, and toileting and cause an overall loss of independence. In order to recover from a stroke, patients must do extensive physical therapy. However, stroke patients face barriers to treatment such as time, cost, and scarcity of physical therapists. Currently, the demand for rehabilitation hours is nine times greater than the health care system can provide. Our solution is a robotically assisted knee rehabilitation device, which we call the Knee Mentor. The knee mentor is an orthotic device that utilizes pneumatic muscle technology to assist stroke survivors through knee exercises. The Knee Mentor is used as a controller to action in a variety of video games. It also records data from each exercise session and sends it to a physical therapist for data-driven professional analysis and further changes to the exercise regimen. Our device gives patients the clinical grade care they need whenever and wherever they choose.