The Arm Guide

The Arm Guide was an early rehabilitation therapy robot used to study the role of active assistance in robotic therapy after stroke, which was developed at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the University of California at Irvine. It was a singly-actuated, trombone-like device which could be oriented in different directions. It was used to sense patient's arm movement along a linear bearing and then assisted in completing movements with a motor attached to a timing belt along the bearing. It also measured off-axis forces generated against the linear bearing, using a 6-axis force-torque cell in order to quantify abnormal synergies.