Fanny Decattoire

The Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory at the University of Minnesota has developed a robotic wrist exoskeleton device (WristBot) that can deliver exercise therapy to neurological patients with motor problems affecting the wrist or hand. The gamified exercises are iteratively developed by incorporating user feedback to improve sensorimotor function. As it is still being developed, the main emphasis of testing these gamified exercises is to evaluate device usability in order to receive critical feedback on the participants' experience with the game prototypes. Healthy participants were recruited through flyers and invited to test the WristBot game prototypes. In the laboratory setting, participants interacted with the WristBot and its gamified exercise prototypes for a limited time. To simplify, they performed wrist and forearm movements with the WristBot to “play” the gamified exercises. Overall, it was found that most games were moderately engaging and pretty easy to learn. Although there were some games, like the airplane and balance game, that received feedback that it was confusing and felt like the system was slow to respond to the user’s movements. Additionally, there was some feedback that the WristBot handle and the wrist movement felt as if it was stuck in certain positions and felt heavy to maneuver. In conclusion, it is suggested that additional features be included in the gamified exercises to improve the usability and sustain motivation in practice so that in the future those with clinical conditions can benefit from these gamified exercises.