AsianScientist (Jul. 27, 2016) – On your next visit to the physiotherapist, don’t be surprised if you are attended to by a robot.
Expert Manipulative Massage Automation (Emma), a physiotherapy robot designed and built by a Singapore-based start-up called AiTreat, specializes in using acupoint therapy to relieve muscle strains and injuries.
“We have designed Emma as a clinically-precise tool that can automatically carry out treatment for patients as prescribed by a physiotherapist or Chinese physician,” said Mr. Albert Zhang, founder of AiTreat.
“This is probably the first such robot in the world developed specifically for use by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) physicians and sports therapists. Our aim is not to replace the therapists who are skilled in sports massage and acupoint therapy, but to improve productivity by enabling one therapist to treat multiple patients with the help of our robots.”
Emma consists of a single, six-axis robotic arm capable of highly articulated movements, a 3D-stereoscopic camera for vision, and a customized, fully rotatable 3D-printed massage tip. In-built safety features, which work in tandem with advanced pressure sensors, ensure the comfort and safety of its patients.
So far, Emma has treated patients with different conditions, such as tennis elbow, stiff neck and shoulders, lower back pain and muscle pulls.
To ensure a consistent quality of therapy, Emma has sensors and diagnostic functions that will measure the progress of the therapy and the exact stiffness of a particular muscle or tendon. These detailed diagnostics are uploaded to the cloud where the progress of each patient can be analyzed and generated into a performance report.
AiTreat’s propriety cloud intelligence is supported by Microsoft, after Zhang and his teammates won the Microsoft Developer Day Start-up Challenge earlier this year.
Zhang said that the robotic arm may resolve some of the challenges faced by sports therapy clinics—a shortage of trained therapists and a need to consistently deliver high-quality therapy, to name a few. Emma is currently undergoing user trials at a local sports science and Chinese medicine clinic.
“What we have demonstrated is the possibility of having a tireless clinical massage therapist that always delivers high quality treatment,” he added.
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Source: Nanyang Technological University.
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