Severance Rehabilitation Hospital said it has opened Korea’s first robot-assisted rehabilitation center. The hospital introduced Lokomat V5, a robotic walking therapy machine, in 2011, and has recently added its latest models, Lokomat V6+Free D and Andago.

Doctors watch a patient using one of the robot rehabilitation center’s equipment upon the opening of the center.

The robotic gait therapy device supports the patient with the robotic leg attached with precision sensors on each joint and provides the proper force according to the patient’s ability. It also continues the gait training in the pattern closest to an average person’s gait.

Andago equipment is the next step in the robotic gait therapy system, allowing a much more versatile gait program with arbitrary walking path and obstacle steps.

The center will also operate a robotic upper extremity training system and Erigo.

The robotic upper extremity training system can receive the most precise and delicate rehabilitation treatment within the range of the patient’s physical ability, with the help of a mechanic arm in a three-dimensional virtual reality environment similar to real life on a large screen.

The Erigo equipment armed with a robot stepper stimulates the muscular nerve recovery and blood circulation by giving electrical stimulation to the thighs and calves of the patient, who have suffered damage to their central nervous system and lost their exercise function.

“The robot rehabilitation center, which leads the development of domestic robot-assisted rehabilitation field and has an international infrastructure, will mark a new history of rehabilitation therapy where dreams,” Severance Rehabilitation Hospital Director Kim Duk-yong said. “It also hopes to open a new era in which standing and gait training of rehabilitation patients become a reality.”

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