Clinical Demands of Designs for Rehabilitation Robots in Taiwan

Robots have been used in neural rehabilitation. As the development of rehabilitation robots has progressed, the functions and designs of robots become to meet the clinical demands. In Taiwan, the proportion of patients and therapists is high. However, rehabilitation with robots is not widespread in Taiwan. By observing the result of a formative test of a novel rehabilitation robot, the reason for that was investigated. For the investigation, interviews were performed to understand the usability, functions applicability, and ease of use of the robot in rehabilitation. For usability, therapists expected safety for the patient with the robot, and other patients, therapists, and caretakers in the open treatment room. Therapists demanded assisting and training modes, visual and audio feedback, and increasing range of motion of internal and external rotation of shoulder for functions applicability. As for the ease of use, robot operation needs to be simple and fast and give clear standards about the operation for daily operation in treatment rooms. The study result shows humanistic design and glocalization also influence the willingness to use rehabilitation robots except for efficacy-related functions.