Do you remember the moment during the opening ceremony of the Brazil World Cup when a young Brazilian with paraplegia, Nopinto, kicked off the World Cup with the help of brain-controlled exoskeleton technology? The device that helped him walk is a type of brain-controlled rehabilitation robot. Rehabilitation robots can assist patients with mobility impairments (such as those caused by strokes, traumatic nerve injuries, limb disabilities, and age-related mobility issues) in their treatment and rehabilitation.
As an important branch of medical robots, rehabilitation robots encompass research from various fields including rehabilitation medicine, biomechanics, mechanics, computer science, and materials science, representing a typical area of medical-engineering integration. The fundamental cause of disability due to stroke is not an issue with the limbs, but rather damage to the central nervous system that prevents control over the limbs. Rehabilitation training can rebuild the connection between the limbs and the central nervous system, stimulating recovery in the damaged areas of the brain, and achieving effective control of the limbs. Motion disorders caused by strokes and spinal cord injuries require the use of rehabilitation devices for training. In China, the disability rate due to stroke is as high as 75%, while in Western countries, due to effective rehabilitation treatment, the rate is only 30%.
The demand for rehabilitation medical services primarily comes from three groups:
First, the elderly population, where high incidences of hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases are the main diseases requiring rehabilitation treatment. With the aging population in China, by the end of 2011, the number of elderly individuals over 60 reached approximately 190 million, with around 70 million needing rehabilitation services.
Second, the disabled population. According to the sixth national population census and the second national sampling survey of disabled individuals, by the end of 2010, there were 85.02 million disabled individuals in China, over 50 million of whom required rehabilitation.
Third, patients with chronic diseases and those in sub-health conditions also need rehabilitation treatment. It is estimated that by 2030, the prevalence of chronic diseases in China will reach 65.7%, with 80% of chronic disease patients requiring rehabilitation treatment.
From 1998 to October 2008, the incidence of diseases among residents in China has continued to rise, especially chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. According to data from the fourth national health service survey in 2008, the prevalence of chronic diseases increases with age. The changing disease spectrum brought about by aging, combined with the rehabilitation needs of the elderly and the demands created by disabilities from chronic diseases, will continue to expand the demand for rehabilitation medical services.
The traditional rehabilitation method involves rehabilitation therapists providing treatments such as acupuncture based on the patient’s condition, which has a low cure rate and is difficult to control in effectiveness. The emergence of rehabilitation robots can improve rehabilitation outcomes and enhance patients’ quality of life. As China enters an aging society with a continuously increasing elderly population, the demand for rehabilitation robots is gradually increasing. Additionally, the growth of national income and increased awareness of healthcare among residents indicate that the current level of rehabilitation treatment can no longer meet public demand. Therefore, there is significant potential for the development of the rehabilitation robot industry.
The development of rehabilitation robots began with the first commercial rehabilitation robot, Handy1, developed by the British company Mike Topping in 1987, which has now been in development for nearly 30 years. The first two rehabilitation robots to enter the market were Handy1 and another called MANUS. Handy1 has five degrees of freedom, allowing disabled individuals to eat at table height, while MANUS is a humanoid arm mounted on a wheelchair with six degrees of freedom, capable of reaching from the ground to standing height. Currently, rehabilitation institutions abroad are equipped with more advanced, automated, multi-degree-of-freedom traction/suspension rehabilitation robots. There is no universal standard for classifying traction/suspension rehabilitation robots. Depending on the targeted limb, they can be primarily divided into traction upper limb rehabilitation robots, traction lower limb rehabilitation robots, and suspension lower limb rehabilitation robots. The most advanced rehabilitation robots today are wearable exoskeleton robots, designed based on bionic principles and ergonomics, which can be worn on the affected limbs. Each joint has a separate driving device, ensuring that the robot’s movement pattern is coaxial with the human body’s degrees of freedom, enabling more effective rehabilitation training.
In March 2016, the British market research company Technavio released a report stating that the global sales of rehabilitation robots (industry size) in 2015 amounted to $577 million, and it is expected that by 2020, the market size will reach $1.73 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.51%. The market share and growth rate of rehabilitation robots in developed regions such as the US and Europe are significantly higher than those in developing countries.
According to data from another statistical company, Grand View Research, among various medical robot products, surgical robots account for the highest proportion, over 60%, making them the most sold type of medical robots. This is followed by minimally invasive radiation surgical systems, which account for about 20%. Emergency robots, exoskeleton robots, assistive rehabilitation robots, and non-medical hospital robots account for smaller proportions. Although surgical robots hold the largest market share among medical robots, rehabilitation robots are experiencing the fastest growth.
According to Grand View Research’s forecast, the market share of exoskeleton robots and assistive rehabilitation robots is expected to increase significantly from 2012 to 2022. It is estimated that over the next five years, the compound annual growth rate of broadly defined rehabilitation robots will be about 37%, with rehabilitation robots at 21% and exoskeleton robots at 47%, far exceeding the average growth rate of other types of medical robots. Although the predicted growth rates for rehabilitation robots from these two companies show slight differences, they both agree that the growth rate of rehabilitation robots is the fastest among medical robots.
Source:Zhihu, Yikang Medical
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