Spanish researchers prototype robotic arm for shoulder rehabilitation

Print 22 January 2016
Varun Saxena / FierceMedicalDevices

Researchers at the Centre for Automation and Robotics at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain say they have developed a robotic exoskeleton for rehabilitation from shoulder injuries.

Apparently, the device uses strength and motion sensors to determine the extent of an injury. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid says it can replicate the movements performed by a therapist during treatment.

The university seeks to take the technology to market through its commercialization arm, dubbed UPM Innovatech. The robotic arm does not appear to have been tested in a clinical trial. Innovatech says a prototype of the device exists in the lab.

Innovatech touts the arm's low cost, saying current solutions can cost upward of $300,000, and claims that there is only one commercialized device for robotic rehabilitation of shoulder injuries.

Watertown, MA's Interactive Motion Technologies sells the InMotion ARM, which enables shoulder protraction/retraction and internal/external rotation as well as elbow flexion and extension.

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