Understanding user needs for robotics assisted cognitive and physical rehabilitation

Overview & Synopsis

Abstract— Biorobotics assistance to rehabilitation has the potential to benefit patients and clinicians significantly, helping to improve outcomes and support clinician users in key task while promoting their sustainability. However significant barriers to a widespread adoption of robotics technologies in clinical practice still exist. For these reasons, as one of the kick-off activities of the Fit4MedRob project, we have performed a literature mapping study to inform the design and execution of a large national survey aimed at identifying unmet user needs, barriers of currently available solutions, and key requirements for biorobotics devices supporting physical and cognitive rehabilitation. The survey results will constitute the cornerstone of research, implementation and evaluation activities of the project and significantly contribute to foster the translation of biorobotics from the experimental setting to established practice in the Italian rehabilitation services landscape. Keywords— biorobotics, cognitive rehabilitation, physical rehabilitation, requirements.