Investigating a Virtual Reality Solution for Rehabilitation in a Biomechatronics Lab and Home Environment

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising technical tool in physical rehabilitation. VR rehabilitation (VRR) programs, like any rehabilitation, attempt to promote neuroplasticity to improve physical rehabilitation. Research indicates that VRR is beneficial; it facilitates task-specific training, multi-sensory feedback, and diversifying rehabilitation tasks, which can motivate patients. This master thesis investigates a VR solution for a biomechatronics lab and a home-based system. This project was partially a collaboration between masterstudents at Mechatronics and Multimedia and Educational Technology. The Mechatronics team developed a biomechatronics lab, which consists of a 6 degrees of freedom motion platform fitted with a treadmill with an integrated force plate sensors for data gathering and VR character control. Our team developed a VR solution for the biomechatronics lab and developed a home-based system using VR and a Nintendo Wii Balance Board. User tests were conducted with healthy individuals to explore if the solutions are usable and to investigate if VRR has any side-effects. Our findings indicate that VRR in the biomechatronics lab and home environment is usable, but we suggest further testing to verify these findings.