Experimental Evaluation of Shared Control for Rehabilitation of Fine Motor Skills

We present the experimental results contrasting virtual fixtures (VFs) with a new shared control (SC) technique for rehabilitation of fine motor skills. The SC assistance algorithm used haptic attributes as the control goal. VF provided assistance based on trajectory. Shapes were chosen from the Visual Motor Integration test book and were used to train candidate’s nondominant hand, using samples recorded from their dominant hand. The results were analyzed using time, trajectory, forces, shape of trajectory, and haptic profiles as metrics. The results indicate that performance of VF and SC were comparable for simple trajectories and SC performed better for complex trajectories.