Effects of repetitive ROM exercise training using a patient robot with musculoskeletal symptoms

In care and nursing education systems, students lack opportunities for acquiring the necessary skills and experiences from practice with actual patients. In this paper, we present a patient robot with musculoskeletal symptoms that supports efficient care education for caregivers to investigate the effects of repetitive range of motion (ROM) exercises. Four students and four experts (who have had many years of experience in the medical field) participated in the data acquisition process by performing repetitive ROM tasks using a patient robot. Based on the collected data, the results were analyzed and the effectiveness and feasibility of repetitive ROM exercises conducted using the patient robot were discussed. This study may provide a new pathway for developing advanced patient robots for use in care training environments by imitating the symptoms of various muscle and joint diseases such as palsy, contractures, and muscle weakness.