Collaboration of Rehabilitation Robot with Virtual Reality Development Engine

2. Related Work

It has been estimated that, around 795,000 people in US suffer stroke each year. Stroke is considered as the 4^th largest cause of preventable deaths and also cause of long term disability (Go et al., 2014), (“Stroke Facts | cdc.gov,” n.d.). It should also be noted that each year almost one-fourth, of the total stroke patients, have reported recurrent attack. Studies have shown that, chances of recurrent stroke attacks can be reduced, by performing regular physical activities or exercises recommended by the therapist (“Preventing Another Stroke | Stroke.org,” n.d.),(“Practice Guidelines: AHA/ASA Guidelines on Prevention of Recurrent Stroke - American Family Physician,” n.d.). However, person who had experienced a stroke may incur substantial disability, which in-turn makes them impossible to perform various physical activities. Therefore, various stroke related research activities are focused on system that could assist stroke patient’s to perform their physical activities with ease. Current research studies have introduced various VR related rehabilitation system for patients suffering from stroke (Burdea, 2003; Cameirao et al., 2007; Kizony et al., 2005; Kuttuva et al., 2006; Ma et al., 2007). Although, many techniques available for stroke rehabilitation include VR environment as an attractive feature, very few techniques concentrate on developing a home oriented system.