ARATA Jumpei, PhD| Megwel Co., Ltd. Kyushu University, Faculty of Engineering; MUKAE Nobutaka, MD PhD; MASUDA Mai, M.S.CP; TANABE Tetsuro, BEc; BANDARA D.S.V., PhD; OSAWA Keisuke, PhD; WEIHENG Xue, M. Eng. Competition Sponsor: Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
Awardee Year: 2025
Currently, 80% of the medical device market is held by developed countries, which account for only 20% of the world’s population. The basic idea of this research is to solve or mitigate this global issue by introducing state-of-the-art robot technology.
Stroke is known to have a significant impact on daily life in the prognosis, and the provision of such a device is expected to be highly effective in terms of maintaining motor function for the health and well-being of the elderly in their daily lives on a global level.
From a field survey in Thailand, the applicants found that stroke patients have limited rehabilitation opportunities, resulting in high spasticity in their hands and fingers, which significantly hinders their daily activities and causes disuse syndrome. To solve this problem, we are developing a device that can improve and prevent spasticity using robot technology, while being simple and inexpensive to construct.
In stroke rehabilitation, the quality and quantity of training is a major factor in successful stroke rehabilitation. Robotic technology enables the detection of movement by sensors and the prescription of movement by motors, thus high-quality training can be carried out without the intensive intervention of a specialist. This is expected to dramatically increase the amount and quality of training.
The applicants have accumulated experience in technology development through the R&D of the hand rehabilitation robot SMOVE (certified in Japan in April 2025, https://youtu.be/mDxVarWe3ZY). This study aims to extend the opportunity of healthcare in LMICs, closing the gap between different economic zones.