The problem
Wearable robotic devices for stroke rehabilitation have a long history of working in the lab and failing in life. The mechanism is only half the engineering problem; the other half is understanding how the device is actually used once it leaves the clinic, and designing for that rather than for the demo.
What we built
Wearable robotic devices to support hand recovery following stroke, spanning mechanism design, actuation, and clinical application. The research deliberately addressed both halves of the problem — understanding usage as well as optimizing it — and is detailed in the thesis Hand Rehabilitation After Stroke: Understanding and Optimizing the Usage of Wearable Robotic Technologies.
The work continues at the EMPOWER Laboratory (Enabling Mobility through Patient-Oriented Wearables and Robotics) at George Mason University, which develops robotic and prosthetic devices for individuals with neurological injuries or amputations.
Why it matters here
Adjacent research at UNC–Chapel Hill and NC State produced rehabilitation robotic devices to assess somatosensory function in individuals with neurological injuries — the same design problem approached as measurement rather than assistance.
If your device touches a person with a neurological injury, the hard part is rarely the actuator. It is the interface, the fit, and the honest accounting of how the thing gets used when nobody is watching.