Configuration design of ankle rehabilitation robots: a systematic review and future prospects.

This is a review of robot configuration design, not a clinical effectiveness review of patient outcomes. It excluded single-motion ankle robots, although those are widely used in early rehabilitation. It searched only Web of Science, Engineering Village and IEEE Xplore, and only peer-reviewed English publications, so other relevant studies may be missing. Patent literature and manufacturer technical information were not included, so many available robot configurations may not be covered. Clinical validation was limited to small samples, mostly healthy subjects, and did not evaluate long-term patient outcomes. Remote center-of-motion designs depend on therapist skill for manual alignment, and real-time alignment with the ankle rotation centre is not achieved. Human-machine compatible designs can couple active and passive motions, and patients may need to control the ankle as the rotation centre, which can create safety problems. The review did not pool effect sizes or produce a meta-analysis.

The paper reports funding from Key Scientific Research Platforms and Projects of Guangdong Regular Institutions of Higher Education of China and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of China. It does not state author conflicts of interest.

Do not read this review as evidence that ankle rehabilitation robots improve patient walking, function or recovery. Most clinical tests used small samples and healthy participants, and long-term patient outcomes were not evaluated.