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A team of researchers from the ai2 Institute, in collaboration with the Department of Physiotherapy of the University of Valencia, researchers from the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Biomechanics (I2MB) of the UPV and the Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (IBV), have designed a parallel robot capable of diagnosing the severity of specific leg injuries much more accurately and reliably than with a traditional clinical assessment. The first clinical trials have demonstrated this, carried out in recent months.

The robotic system devised by researchers at the UPV's ai2 is composed of a parallel robot base with a shoe on top equipped with various force sensors, as well as two 3D vision cameras programmed with an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of identifying the different segments of the leg and determining angles of movement.

The team conducted two different tests during the clinical trial. In the first, a trajectory control was programmed for the robot so that the patient stopped the robot's movement using a remote control knob when he believed the final position had been reached.

The active tests were similar, but in this case, a force control was programmed so that the patient moved the robot to the final position using the force of their leg. The position to which the robot was to move was determined by the angle formed between the hip, knee and ankle. In the tests carried out, two angles were set: 30º and 50º, which are those used by physiotherapists when carrying out a traditional clinical assessment.

The experiment results confirm that the parallel robot is a reliable diagnostic assessment system and yields a much more accurate resolution than human clinical assessments, providing millimetre-level data. Customised knee treatments

Elena Muñoz, Researcher and Lecturer at the Faculty of Physiotherapy of the University of Valencia, explains that the robotic system "is exciting for patients with knee pathology, such as patellar tendinopathy, ligament or meniscus injury, as all of them cause an alteration of proprioception -sense of the position of our body and muscular control of movement-". "The parallel robot allows us to measure knee proprioception with much more accurate data than those obtained from human assessment, which depend on the experience of the professional. We can extract data on both the patient's strength and movement angle, allowing us to adapt the treatment precisely and individually for each patient," Muñoz explains.

The robot has been developed within the framework of the ROBOPROP project (parallel robotic system with musculoskeletal model-based control for monitoring and training the proprioceptive system). The project, funded by the State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, aims not only at the development and experimental validation of a mechatronic system capable of clinically assessing the patient's lower limb but also of carrying out specific rehabilitation tasks in complete safety for the patient.

Second clinical study

ROBOPROP is now entering a second phase of evaluation, in which a second clinical study will be conducted with 15 knee injury patients.

"The idea is not only to carry out the initial assessment but also to apply a treatment and use the robot to carry out a post-treatment measurement to see to what extent they have improved," adds Elena Muñoz.

Ángel Valera, Researcher at the ai2 Institute of the UPV, explains that parallel robots make it possible to work more safely than standard robots. "We have equipped the robotic system with force sensors that can be limited to be compatible with the lesion to be treated, so the development is completely safe for patients," he says.

New Parallel Robotics Research Laboratory

The ROBOPROP project tests have been carried out in the new headquarters of the Parallel Robotics Laboratory of the Robotics and Biomechanics Group, jointly operated by the ai2 Institute and the I2MB of the UPV and located in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department. The laboratory is equipped with two parallel robots developed entirely by the group. It also has a 3D tracking photogrammetry system based on 14 infrared cameras with more than 0.1 mm accuracy.

Parallel robots are closed-loop robots driven in parallel by a moving and a stationary platform connected by at least two independent motion chains. The mechanism has two or more degrees of freedom. The motors of parallel robots allow higher force with less motor than serial robots and are easier to control in real time. This makes them well-suited for applications requiring high positioning accuracy, such as those related to medical rehabilitation.

Luis Zurano Conches / Communication Area (ACOM)