Bioengineers have built a robotic exoskeleton arm to “retrain” the limbs of stroke survivors. The team from Arizona State University and Kinetic Muscles Inc. will present their work at this summer’s 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics. From sponsor The Whitaker Foundation:

Recent research suggests that stroke survivors can recover significant use of their arms by performing repetitive motor function exercises over a period of time. This labor intensive physical therapy is expensive, however, claiming up to 4 percent of the national health budget, according to the National Institutes of Health. Moreover, health insurers may limit or deny coverage before stroke survivors achieve best results, (principal investigator Jiping He) said.

“This device is intended to provide cost-effective therapy to a wider population for a longer period of time for maximum recovery of motor function,” He said of the device, dubbed RUPERT I, for Robotic Upper Extremity Repetitive Therapy.

Whitaker Foundation via BoingBoing