RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN ROBOT ASSISTED LOWER LIMB REHABILITATION TECHNIQUES

Lower limb joint injuries are very common and are caused due to several reasons. In many cases, either after surgical procedure or even without it, rehabilitation is a highly important and necessary process. Rehabilitation is defined as ‘the act of restoring someone's health to normalcy after a period of discomfort through exercise and therapy to improve their quality of life'. Rehabilitation can be of two types broadly – active and passive. Active rehabilitation techniques involve the patients to directly perform special exercises such as stretching, bending and folding taught by physical therapists. Passive techniques include some form of assistance which may be provided either manually by the therapist or by special machines designed to assist rehabilitation. Manual physiotherapy is not usually recommended immediately after trauma or procedure and robotic rehabilitation machines are used in the initial stages because of their safety of operation and angle precision. The purpose of this paper is, to review the recent advancements and innovations in this area. The robot-assisted motor rehabilitation is proven to be better than manual rehabilitation in many ways but in cases, where there are budget constraints, they may not be considered. The clinically viable methods that have been presented in literature are discussed in this paper and also possible suggestions for future developments in the same area are proposed.