• muscle tone assessment rehabilitation spasticity t

Stroke is one of the main cause of disability in the world. Stroke patients can suffer from abnormality in muscle tone, as spasticity and rigidity. Muscle tone disorders negatively affect the quality of life of post-stroke patients.A continuous assessment of muscle tone is required ring rehabilitation therapy. Unfortunately, clinical assessment conducted using scales is not highly reliable and accurate. The Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory (ETH Zurich) has developed a two DoF robot for the rehabilitation of the hand of stroke patients, the ReHapticKnob. The RHK contains seven exercises for post-stroke patients rehabilitation. This thesis work has two main objectives. At first, design a new therapy exercise that can be used independently by the patients, with an appealing and entertaining virtual reality, that is inspired by the Neurocognitive Rehabilitation Therapy of Perfetti. The exercise allows a sensory-motor training of two DoF, pronation-supination and grasping. Secondly, include an assessment of muscle tone in the exercise, that allows a continuous monitoring, able to identify changes in tone that could be of significant importance in the outcome of therapy.