A robotic physiotherapy arm developed by engineers at the University of Leeds has won a National Instruments Global Student Design Contest.

The Advanced upper-Limb Autonomous Neuro-rehabilitation device (known as Alan) uses six motors and a networked control system to recreate the movements and force that a physiotherapist would use when treating a patient.

The control system can either run pre-recorded sets of movements for guided treatment or replicate the movements of both physio-therapist and patient via the Internet to provide remote ‘tele-therapy’. The NHS-funded project has so far conducted two clinical trials.

Currently, 85% of people in the UK who survive a stroke are left with some degree of arm paresis, and a quarter of them still have difficulty using their arm five years later.

Justin Gallagher, researcher at the University of Leeds, who worked on the project, said: “Traditional physiotherapy devices can still be pretty rudimentary, and there is a strain on physiotherapy services in the NHS. The Alan arm could help relieve this, while ensuring that patients perform the physio they are supposed to between sessions.”

Martin Levesley, professor of dynamics and control at the university, said: “There are also a lot of robotic physiotherapy systems in development, and Alan could be used to perform the clinical trials for these devices faster.”