Patients needing rehab may get robotic relief

A robot able to offer physiotherapy to stroke and accident victims is being developed at Cardiff University.

Reharob will be programmed to replicate the arm movements of a human physiotherapist and will be able to follow individual therapy plans.

Due-Trong Pham, director of Cardiff's manufacturing engineering centre, said: "This is a promising development for patients who need hours of daily physiotherapy treatment but may not have access to such intense treatment because of a shortage of physiotherapists."

Reharob is the focus of a joint programme between robotics experts in Cardiff, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria. It is funded by the European Commission. Clinical trials will be conducted at Hungary's National Institute for Medical Rehabilitation.