Rehabilitation robotics provides support for patients to regain their independence and muscle strength, especially in old age. Patients are offered to self-administer the rehabilitation exercises at home over the treatment period. However, physical rehabilitation exercises fall dramatically (lower than 18%), causing several consequences such as risk of morbidity and mortality from falling down and prolonging the treatment period. One of the main reasons behind this is the lack of motivation, and exercises are boring, especially for those with weak muscles and bones.
Gamification approaches have been shown to hold features that can contribute to an increase in intrinsic motivation and promote new behaviours in several fields, including rehabilitation. Currently, the School of Biomedical Sciences is developing a mobile application to manage the rehabilitation robotics treatment for patients with chronic knee pain.
This project is a collaboration between the MA Design students at the School of Design and the MSc Sport and Exercise Medicine students at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds.
In this brief, students develop an interactive design solution to motivate patients to exercise at home, helping them to adhere to the exoskeleton robotic exercises and develop exercise habits through gamification. While the medical students develop the main application and conduct patient testing, design students focus on developing the gamified element in the project to improve patients’ behaviour.
The project is a collaboration between Dr Aiqin Liu (CEng, MIMechE) (See her bio in the Network team page), Dr Rafiq Elmansy (HABIT project co-founder), Dr Rui Leitao (Module Leader), and Dr Elif Sener (Module tutor).
The HABIT Lab 