Rehab Robots
Generally speaking, I prefer preventive care delivered naturally with naturally available resources. But every once in a while, you come across a modern invention that makes our lives better.
Rehabilitation robots.
Injuries and ageing can both affect our ability to use our body. Hands and legs in particular. So imagine someone who broke a knee playing football. She is holed up in bed, unable to walk for a few months.
She needs to undergo physical rehabilitation to recover. Rehab requires a visit to a trained physiotherapist several times a week.
The physiotherapist has to help her go through a range of motions that exercise the muscles that are wasting from a lack of use.
An alternative that is now available is a rehabilitation robot.
Think of the movie Avatar, in which Colonel Miles Quatrich straps himself into a robot suit to deal with the Navi.
The same robot suit can be used for more benign purposes. To help you exercise your hands and legs.
You would then wear the suit, which would be programmed to run a series of exercises. The purpose of the exercise would be to train and strengthen your muscles.
Except in this case, microsensors could precisely measure responses to exercise. Based on how you are responding, the exercise routine could be changed on the fly for the best possible results.
A well-trained human could possibly replicate this. But it would require a really dedicated and well-trained person. Every rehabilitation robot could be at that level and more.
In such cases, it just makes sense to use the robot.
Sure, they are expensive today. But with all technological innovations, prices will come down until they become everyday tools.
Many people would be tempted to use it in place of going to the gym.
Personally, I think the ability to understand your body and adjust what you are doing is a skill that you should retain, unless you have no choice due to an injury or equivalent.
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