Background: Non-immersive video games are currently being used as technological rehabilitation tools for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aim of this feasibility study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Leap Motion Controller® (LMC) system used with serious games designed for the upper limb (UL), as well as the levels of satisfaction and compliance among patients in mild-to-moderate stages of the disease. Methods: A non-probabilistic sampling of non-consecutive cases was performed. 23 PD patients, in stages II-IV of the Hoehn & Yahr scale, were randomized into two groups: an experimental group (n = 12) who received treatment based on serious games designed by the research team using the LMC system for the UL, and a control group (n = 11) who received a specific intervention for the UL. Grip muscle strength, coordination, speed of movements, fine and gross UL dexterity, as well as satisfaction and compliance, were assessed in both groups pre-treatment and post-treatment. Results: Within the experimental group, significant improvements were observed in all post-treatment assessments, except for Box and Blocks test for the less affected side. Clinical improvements were observed for all assessments in the control group. Statistical intergroup analysis showed significant improvements in coordination, speed of movements and fine motor dexterity scores on the more affected side of patients in the experimental group. Conclusions: The LMC system and the serious games designed may be a feasible rehabilitation tool for the improvement of coordination, speed of movements and fine UL dexterity in PD patients. Further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.

Background: Dexterity and activities of daily living limitations on the upper limb (UL) represent one of the most common problems in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the specially developed Serious Games that make use of the Leap Motion Controller (LMC) as main user interface for improving UL grip muscle strength, dexterity, fatigue, quality of life, satisfaction and compliance. Methods: A single-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted. The sample was randomized into two groups: an experimental group who received treatment based on serious games designed by the research team using the developed LMC based Serious Games for the UL plus conventional rehabilitation, and a control group who received the same conventional rehabilitation for the UL. Both groups received two 60 min sessions per week over a ten-week period. Grip muscle strength, coordination, speed of movements, fine and gross UL dexterity, fatigue, quality of life, satisfaction and compliance were assessed in both groups pre-treatment, post-treatment and in a follow-up period of 1 month without receiving any treatment. Results: In the experimental group compared to the control group, significant improvements were observed in the post-treatment assessment for coordination, speed of movements, fine and gross UL dexterity. Also, significant results were found in the follow-up in coordination, speed of movements, fine and gross for the more affected side. Conclusions: An experimental protocol using an LMC based Serious Games designed for UL rehabilitation showed improvements for unilateral gross manual dexterity, fine manual dexterity, and coordination in MS patients with high satisfaction and excellent compliance. Trial registration: This randomized controlled trial has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04171908, Nov 2019.

Robot-aided systems to support the physical rehabilitation of individuals with neurological impairment is one of the fields that has been widely developed in the last few decades. However, the adoption of these systems in clinical practice remains limited. In order to better understanding the causes of this limitation, a systematic review of robot-based systems focused on upper extremity rehabilitation is presented in this paper. A systematic search and review of related articles in the literature were conducted. The chosen works were analyzed according to the type of device, the data analysis capability, the therapy method, the human–robot interaction, the safety strategies, and the focus of treatment. As a conclusion, self-adaptation for personalizing the treatments, safeguarding and enhancing of patient–robot interaction towards training essential factors of movement generation into the same paradigm, or the use of lifelike environments in fully-immersive virtual reality for increasing the assimilation of motor gains could be relevant factors to develop more accepted robot-aided systems in clinical practice.

In recent decades, gaming technology has been accepted as a feasible method for complementing traditional clinical practice, especially in neurorehabilitation; however, the viability of using 3D Virtual Reality (VR) for the assessment of upper limb motor function has not been fully explored. For that purpose, we developed a VR-based version of the Box and Blocks Test (BBT), a clinical test for the assessment of manual dexterity, as an automated alternative to the classical procedure. Our VR-based BBT (VR-BBT) integrates the traditional BBT mechanics into gameplay using the Leap Motion Controller (LMC) to capture the user’s hand motion and the Oculus Rift headset to provide a fully immersive experience. This paper focuses on evaluating the validity of our VR-BBT to reliably measure the manual dexterity in a sample of patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). For this study, a group of twenty individuals in a mild to moderate stage of PD were recruited. Participants were asked to perform the physical BBT (once) and our proposed VR-BBT (twice) system, separately. Correlation analysis of collected data was carried out. Statistical analysis proved that the performance data collected by the VR-BBT significantly correlated with the conventional assessment of the BBT. The VR-BBT scores have shown a significant association with PD severity measured by the Hoehn and Yahr scale. This fact suggests that the VR-BBT could be used as a reliable indicator for health improvements in patients with PD. Finally, the VR-BBT system presented high usability and acceptability rated by clinicians and patients.

Robot-mediated neurorehabilitation is a growing field that seeks to incorporate advances in robotics combined with neuroscience and rehabilitation to define new methods for treating problems related with neurological diseases. In this paper, a systematic literature review is conducted to identify the contribution of robotics for upper limb neurorehabilitation, highlighting its relation with the rehabilitation cycle, and to clarify the prospective research directions in the development of more autonomous rehabilitation processes. With this aim, first, a study and definition of a general rehabilitation process are made, and then, it is particularized for the case of neurorehabilitation, identifying the components involved in the cycle and their degree of interaction between them. Next, this generic process is compared with the current literature in robotics focused on upper limb treatment, analyzing which components of this rehabilitation cycle are being investigated. Finally, the challenges and opportunities to obtain more autonomous rehabilitation processes are discussed. In addition, based on this study, a series of technical requirements that should be taken into account when designing and implementing autonomous robotic systems for rehabilitation is presented and discussed.

“Hello, I’m the TERMINATOR, and I’ll be your server today”. Diners might soon be feeling this greeting, with Optimus Prime in the kitchen and Wall-E then sending your order to C-3PO. In our daily lives, a version of that future is already showing up. Robotics companies are designing robots to handle tasks, including serving, interacting, collaborating, and helping. These service robots are intended to coexist with humans and engage in relationships that lead them to a better quality of life in our society. Their constant evolution and the arising of new challenges lead to an update of the existing systems. This update provides a generic vision of two questions: the advance of service robots, and more importantly, how these robots are applied in society (professional and personal) based on the market application. In this update, a new category is proposed: catering robotics. This proposal is based on the technological advances that generate new multidisciplinary application fields and challenges. Waiter robots is an example of the catering robotics. These robotic platforms might have social capacities to interact with the consumer and other robots, and at the same time, might have physical skills to perform complex tasks in professional environments such as restaurants. This paper explains the guidelines to develop a waiter robot, considering aspects such as architecture, interaction, planning, and execution.