Stroke leaves about 5 million people with long-term impairments each year, and a growing shortage of physical therapists makes it hard for many of them to get the care they need. A new approach tries to close that gap by combining artificial intelligence with human therapy.
Johannes Lachner, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Purdue University, and Noah Geiger, a former visiting student at MIT, developed a robotic system that uses generative AI and real-time force feedback to learn from real therapists. Drawing on what it has learned, the system gives patients just the right amount of assistance during rehabilitation exercises such as reaching, lifting their arms, and performing everyday tasks.
The goal, according to Lachner, is "not to replace therapists, but to extend their reach." He says initial robotic experiments have already demonstrated the feasibility of the approach.
The next phase of the project aims to develop therapist-specific models and evaluate them in a long-term clinical study with the same patients who previously received manual therapy. Beyond rehabilitation, Lachner envisions possible applications in contact-rich industrial settings or collaborative workspaces.
Source: MIT Technology Review · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing