Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

There is an increasing need for assistive robots to support independent living for people with physical disabilities, but few are commercially accessible to users in their homes. Our objective was to investigate how the functional performance of everyday activities improved the performance of an individual with quadriplegia using the Stretch robot. We implemented a participatory design approach using a single subject volunteer sampling. Point-in-time evaluations included Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL) and Stroke Impact Scale (SIS). Pre- and post-measures included the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) to assess intervention effectiveness on personalized goals. There was a statistically significant improvement in baseline GAS scores based on the individual’s goals in grooming (+2), self-feeding (+2), social participation (+2 giving a rose, +0 playing cards), and meal planning (+2) along with a T-scale score of 74.43. The individual’s functional performance in daily activities improved with Stretch while reducing care partner assistance, contributing positively to their experiences.

Plain Language Summary

Empowering Functional Performance Using Robotics with a Significantly Motor Impaired Post-Stroke Adult

This article discusses the use of a Stretch in a home environment by a non-speaking adult male who is paralyzed from the neck down. Stretch was operated by the person using a web interface on his computer to let him perform his daily living activities such as self-feeding, planning meals, personal hygiene, grooming, socializing, and playing games. This study shows how the Stretch empowered the person’s ability to do his everyday activities with greater independence while reducing the need for assistance from his care partner. The experiences of the individual and his care partner provide valuable insights into the practical applications of robots for people with physical disabilities and supporting their independent living.

Keywords

occupational therapy daily living assistive technologies functional outcomes caregivers

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderlini

Wallis

Marinovic

(2019). Language as a predictor of motor recovery: The case for a more global approach to stroke rehabilitation. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 33, 167–178.

Barman

Chatterjee

Bhide

(2016). Cognitive impairment and rehabilitation strategies after traumatic brain injury. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 38, 172–181.

Baum

C. M.

Christiansen

C. H.

Bass

J. D.

(Eds.) (2015). Occupational therapy: Performance, participation, and well-being (4th ed.). Slack.

Bergström

A. L.

Eriksson

Von Koch

Tham

(2011). Combined life satisfaction of persons with stroke and their caregiver: Associations with caregiver burden and the impact of stroke. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 9, Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-9-1

Bugge

Alexander

Hagen

(1999). Stroke patients’ informal caregiver. Patient, caregiver, and service factors that affect caregiver strain. Stroke, 30(8), 1517–1523. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.30.8.1517

Cabrera

M. E.

Bhattacharjee

Dey

Çakmak

(2021). An exploration of accessible remote tele-operation for assistive mobile manipulators in the home. 2021 30th IEEE international conference on robot & human interactive communication (RO-MAN). https://doi.org/10.1109/ro-man50785.2021.9515511

Carnwath

T. C.

Johnson

D. A.

(1987). Psychiatric morbidity among spouses of patients with stroke. British Medical, 294(6569), 409–411. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.294.6569.409

Ciocarlie

Hsiao

Leeper

Gossow

(2012). Mobile manipulation through an assistive home robot. IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems (pp. 5313–5320). https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2012.6385907

D’Amico

Boscia

Cannone

Alberti

Lancioni

(2022). Everyday technology to support basic communication and leisure of individuals with extensive neuro-motor and speech impairments. Journal of Enabling Technologies, 16, 243–249.

10.

Dembovski

Amitai

Levy-Tzedek

(2022). A Socially Assistive Robot for Stroke Patients: Acceptance, Needs, and Concerns of Patients and Informal Caregivers. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 2, Article 793233. https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2021.793233

11.

Duncan

P. W.

Wallace

Lai

S. M.

Johnson

Embretson

Laster

L. J.

(1999). The stroke impact scale version 2.0. Evaluation of reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. Stroke, 30(10), 2131–2140. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.30.10.2131

12.

Fried-Oken

Beukelman

D. R.

Hux

(2012). Current and future AAC research considerations for adults with acquired cognitive and communication impairments. Assistive Technology, 24, 56–66.

13.

Grice

P. M.

Kemp

C. C.

(2019). In-home and remote use of robotic body surrogates by people with profound motor deficits. PLOS ONE, 14(3), Article e0212904. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212904

14.

Hello Robot Inc. (2020). Stretch™ Research Edition: A new kind of robot. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://hello-robot.com/product

15.

Hello Robot Inc. (2021). Fisheye Cameras Interface. GitHub. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://github.com/hello-robot/stretch_fisheye_web_interface.

16.

Holmqvist

Thunberg

Dahistrand

(2018). Gaze-controlled communication technology for children with severe multiple disabilities: Parents and professionals’ perception of gains, obstacles, and prerequisites. Assistive Technology, 30, 201–208.

17.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. (2010). PR2. Retrieved May 15, 2022. https://robots.ieee.org/robots/pr2/

18.

Kapusta

A. S.

Grice

P. M.

Clever

H. M.

Chitalia

Park

Kemp

C. C.

(2019). A system for bedside assistance that integrates a robotic bed and a mobile manipulator. PLOS ONE, 14(10), Article e0221854. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221854

19.

Kemp

C. C.

Edsinger

Clever

H. M.

Matulevich

(2021). The design of robot: A compact, lightweight mobile manipulator for indoor human environments. IEEE international conference on robotics and automation (ICRA). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2109.10892

20.

Krasny-Pacini

Evans

Sohlberg

M. M.

Chevignard

(2016). Proposed criteria for appraising goal attainment scales used as outcome measures in rehabilitation research. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 97(1), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2015.08.424

21.

Lancioni

G. E.

Singh

N. N.

O’Reilly

M. F.

Sigafoos

D’Amico

Vincenti

Buonocunto

Susco

Lanzilotti

Navarro

(2019). Basic smartphone-aided communication and leisure for people with extensive neuro-motor impairment and absence of speech. Neurorehabilitation, 45, 311–322.

22.

Machado

W. C.

Scramin

A. P.

(2010). Functional (in)dependence in the dependent relationship of quadriplegic men with their (un)replaceable parents/caregiver. Revista Da Escola De Enfermagem Da USP, 44(1), 53–60. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0080-62342010000100008

23.

McCullagh

Brigstocke

Donaldson

Kalra

(2005). Determinants of caregiving burden and quality of life in caregivers of stroke patients. Stroke, 36(10), 2181–2186. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.STR.0000181755.23914.53

24.

Nakken

Vlaskamp

(2007). A need for a taxonomy for profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 4(2), 83–87.

25.

Reid

Chesson

(1998). Goal attainment scaling: Is it appropriate for stroke patients and their physiotherapists? Physiotherapy, 84(3), 136–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9406(05)66518-2

26.

Robinson-Smith

Johnston

M. V.

Allen

(2000). Self-care self-efficacy, quality of life, and depression after stroke. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 81(4), 460–464. https://doi.org/10.1053/mr.2000.3863

27.

Rousseau

M. C.

Baumstarck

Billette de Villemeur

Auquier

(2016). Evaluation of quality of life in individuals with severe chronic motor disability: A major challenge. Intractable & Rare Diseases Research, 5(2), 83–89. https://doi.org/10.5582/irdr.2016.01017

28.

Schulz

Beach

S. R.

(1999). Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: The caregiver health effects study. JAMA, 282(23), 2215–2219. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.282.23.2215

29.

Tas

N. P.

(2023). The relationship between the severity of the disease and burden on the caregivers. Journal of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, 40(3), 622–626. https://doi.org/10.52142/omujecm.40.3.33

30.

Turner-Stokes

(2009). Goal attainment scaling (GAS) in rehabilitation: A practical guide. Clinical Rehabilitation, 23(4), 362–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215508101742

31.

Vincent

Desrosiers

Landreville

Demers

B. R. A. D.

, & BRAD group (2009). Burden of caregivers of people with stroke: Evolution and predictors. Cerebrovascular Diseases (Basel, Switzerland), 27(5), 456–464. https://doi.org/10.1159/000210092

32.

Williams

L. S.

Weinberger

Harris

L. E.

Clark

D. O.

Biller

(1999). Development of a stroke-specific quality of life scale. Stroke, 30(7), 1362–1369. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.30.7.1362

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB

0.01 MB

0.02 MB

Beyond Motor Impairment: Empowering Functional Performance With Robotics

Abstract

Plain Language Summary

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material