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RERC on Rehabilitation Robotics and Telemanipulation:
Machines Assisting Recovery from Stroke (MARS-RERC)

Principal Investigator: W. Zev Rymer, MD, PhD
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

345 East Superior Street, Room 1402
Chicago, IL  60611-4496

 

Scientific Contact: W. Zev Rymer, MD, Ph.D.

Phone: (312) 238-3919 voice;
Email: w-rymer@northwestern.edu

 

Business Contact: Mary-Ellen Devitt, MPP

Phone: (312) 238-2910 voice; (312) 908-2208 fax
Email: medevitt@ric.org

 

Project Website: http://www.smpp.northwestern.edu/MARS/mars.html

 

MARS-RERC focuses its research and development on restoring function in hemispheric stroke survivors. Four projects assess different approaches that have the potential to improve performance of the upper extremity, and one project attempts to restore gait and fluid locomotion to the lower extremities. These projects include:

• ARM Guide - robotic therapy for force training of the upper extremity in chronic hemiparetic stroke;

• Lokomat - gait restoration in hemiparetic stroke patients using goal-directed, robotic-assisted treadmill training;

• Augmented Reality Robotic Rehab - development of a robotic system with an augmented reality interface for rehabilitation of brain-injured individuals;

• Robotic Assisted Finger Extension - rehabilitation of finger extension in chronic hemiplegia;

• T-WREX - eventually a home-based telerehabilitation system for improving functional hand and arm movement recovery following stroke utilizing an anti-gravity orthosis.

In addition to these projects, MARS-RERC is training undergraduate engineering students, medical students, physician residents, graduate students in engineering and neuroscience, and allied health clinicians, including physical and occupational therapists in the area rehabilitation robotics.

 

The broad intent of MARS-RERC is to develop robotic devices or machines that assist the therapist in providing treatments that are rationally based, intensive, and long in duration. This project is a collaboration of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), the Catholic University of America (CUA) and National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the University of California at Irvine (UCI).

MARS-RERC YR4 Grant #: H133E020724-04

Organogram [MS PowerPoint - 49kb]

Robots in Rehabilitation: the Sorcerer's Apprentice? - Zev Rymer (PDF Format 692KB)

Watch a slide show of MARS description   [MS PowerPoint - 1.05mb]