User Experience of a Rehab Community-Based, Affordable Robot Exercise System (Rehab CARES) for Gamified Motor and Cognitive Stroke Rehabilitation

Purpose: Robot-assisted therapy predominantly targets motor impairment, although post-stroke motor and cognitive impairments co-occur. We report user experience in a longitudinal deployment of a Rehab Community-based Affordable Robot Exercise System (RehabCARES) for delivering personalized motor/cognitive training. Methods: Six adults with chronic stroke (FM-UE 20-61; MoCA 22-28) completed 12 therapy visits with THEAbot, a reconfigurable 1-DoF robot. Rehab CARES also included a haptic/biometric dynamic difficulty adjustment controller and eight games characterized by cognitive processes and motor/cognitive demand. We report gaming preference, usage, and user experience (pain, exertion, usability, affect, workload) across therapy. Results: User experience varied, but generally, self-reported pain was low, perceived exertion was light to moderate, enjoyment was strong and stable, and sense of control increased while excitement plateaued. Workload showed decreasing frustration and effort. Game selection during therapy was partially consistent with motor/cognitive clinical profiles; preferences and perceptual abilities may have influenced choices. Usability scores exceeded acceptability at all time points, peaking at the final visit (86 +/- 4.5 out of 100). Conclusions: RehabCARES provided personalized motor/cognitive training to a heterogeneous cohort in a community-based setting, delivering a positive user experience. Hardware reconfigurability and motor/cognitive game variety likely enabled this success.