Intelligent Exercise Platform for Parkinson's Disease Rehabilitation

In this study, some novel approaches have been employed to develop a platform for studying the new and potentially high-impact therapeutic approaches (e.g. forced exercise or active-assisted cycling) for improving motor function in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). These therapeutic methods can readily be implemented and can provide benefits to patients at lower cost and reduced risk. The outcomes of this study, including variability analysis results, Smart Exercise Bike and electronically connected tandem bicycle, provide a unique and valuable foundation for exploring the operational and control parameters of the exercise system that provides the optimum benefit for PD riders. It can also be used as an effective platform for research on the underlying mechanisms for improvements in motor function and for readily implementing a feedback system that can dynamically optimize the benefits from accelerated cycling for individual PD riders.