Prof. Yong Yu from Kagoshima University was invited to visit Institute of Intelligent Machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences on Sep 15th. The lecture that Prof. Yu gave is titled o “Development of Hemiplegic Upper and Lower Limbs Rehabilitation Devices Based on Repetitive Facilitation Exercise”. Prof. Gao presided the innovation forum. Many students and professors from IIM joined the discussion.

Prof. Yu reviewed the brain damage caused by a stroke and its long-term deficits as hemiplegia. The advances in neuroscience in recent years have made it clear that even when a portion of the brain has been damaged, the regions of the brain that have escaped damage have the capacity to take over the role of the affected regions, a phenomenon referred to as the plasticity of the brain. “Repetitive Facilitation Exercise” (RFE) is an effective rehabilitation method that can potentially manifest the brain plasticity. The aim of this research is to develop devices based on RFE to implement functional recovery training methods for hemiplegic upper limbs (finger, wrist and shoulder) and lower limbs (knee, ankle and walking) and establish an effective training method by these devices. The effectiveness of the proposed devices is demonstrated by motion analysis and practical clinical experiments.

Prof. Yu is an associate professor in the department of engineering at Kagoshima University. His research focuses on intelligent manipulation, wearable robotic exoskeleton and rehabilitation training robot. He has published more than 150 papers and got 10 Japanese patents and 15 international academic awards.

Prof. Yu was giving a lecture (Imaged by GE Yunjian )