Leveraging Robot-Based Haptic Dyads to Improve Community-Based Stroke Rehabilitation
Stroke and age-related disabilities affect millions of older adults worldwide, with the greatest burden falling on low- and middle-income countries. This project explores how affordable robotic therapy and haptic interaction—the use of touch, vibration, and force feedback—can support rehabilitation in community settings. We are investigating how pairs of individuals, including healthy older adults and people with stroke, learn motor skills when connected through a haptic link in multiplayer robot-based games. This approach not only enables implicit communication but may also increase motivation and social engagement during therapy.Our work focuses on three goals:
- Studying motor learning – How do motor and cognitive impairments affect learning when practicing with a haptic partner?
- Modeling communication – Using computational tools to understand how people with impairments share information through sensory feedback.
- Designing adaptive robots – Building controllers that balance ability levels so partners can support each other effectively.
By answering fundamental questions about sensorimotor communication, this project aims to guide the design of the next generation of accessible, community-based rehabilitation robots.
