Citation: Falkowski, P.; Osiak, T.;
Wilk, J.; Prokopiuk, N.; Leczkowski,
B.; Pilat, Z.; Rzymkowski, C. Study
on the Applicability of Digital Twins
for Home Remote Motor
Rehabilitation. Sensors 2023, 23, 911.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020911
Academic Editors: Zhihan Lv, Kai Xu
and Zhigeng Pan
Received: 14 December 2022
Revised: 7 January 2023
Accepted: 8 January 2023
Published: 12 January 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Review
Study on the Applicability of Digital Twins for Home Remote
Motor Rehabilitation
Piotr Falkowski
1,2,
* , Tomasz Osiak
3
, Julia Wilk
1,2
, Norbert Prokopiuk
2
, Bazyli Leczkowski
1,2
,
Zbigniew Pilat
1
and Cezary Rzymkowski
2
1
Łukasiewicz Research Network—Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements PIAP,
02-486 Warsaw, Poland
2
Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering,
Warsaw University of Technology, 00-665 Warszawa, Poland
3
Chair of Clinical Physiotherapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation, The Józef Piłsudski University of Physical
Education in Warsaw, 00-809 Warszawa, Poland
* Correspondence: piotr.falkowski@piap.lukasiewicz.gov.pl or piotr.falkowski.dokt@pw.edu.pl
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic created the need for telerehabilitation development, while
Industry 4.0 brought the key technology. As motor therapy often requires the physical support of a
patient’s motion, combining robot-aided workouts with remote control is a promising solution. This
may be realised with the use of the device’s digital twin, so as to give it an immersive operation. This
paper presents an extensive overview of this technology’s applications within the fields of industry
and health. It is followed by the in-depth analysis of needs in rehabilitation based on questionnaire
research and bibliography review. As a result of these sections, the original concept of controlling a
rehabilitation exoskeleton via its digital twin in the virtual reality is presented. The idea is assessed
in terms of benefits and significant challenges regarding its application in real life. The presented
aspects prove that it may be potentially used for manual remote kinesiotherapy, combined with the
safety systems predicting potentially harmful situations. The concept is universally applicable to
rehabilitation robots.
Keywords:
digital twin; exoskeletons; home rehabilitation; human–machine interaction; IoT; motor
therapy; robot-aided rehabilitation; remote treatment
1. Introduction
Often, ideas about the future include the ability to control objects over long distances,
visiting shops without leaving home, interactive, engaging games or meetings with loved
ones anywhere and anytime thanks to a remote connection [
1
]. Within the last few years,
there has been a strong need to bring these closer to the present. The COVID-19 pandemic
has proved the need to revitalise the health service and create a new approach to patient
treatment during crises. Hospitals, medical centres, and rehabilitation facilities have been
crippled, mainly by a shortage of health workers who cannot maintain an adequate level
of health services to meet the population’s growing needs. As urbanisation has led to the
rapid spread of infectious diseases, while the population is ageing, the number of people
requiring constant medical care is increasing [2]. Such challenges are met by telemedicine
and telerehabilitation, intensively developed within recent years [
3
]. With the rise of digital
technologies, remote monitoring of patients’ progress in therapy and the assessment of
their health has been enabled. This is possible thanks to ECG, blood pressure, and glucose
level measurements, among others [
4
]. Often, rehabilitation of people who cannot sit or
stand independently requires the help of up to three physiotherapists, as it is too difficult
for one [
5
]. Digital twins seem to be the solution in such situations. Initially, they were
developed as digital equivalents of machines and industrial elements, such as engines or
turbines [
6
]. They may be used to predict the system’s response in critical events and detect
Sensors 2023, 23, 911. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020911 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
