{
  "abstract": "Introduction: Robot-mediated neuro-motor rehabilitation offers intensive, repeatable, and objectively monitored therapy, yet existing systems rarely integrate automated session management, real-time per-repetition scoring, and data-driven adaptive difficulty progression within a single non-contact architecture. This work presents HemiBot (Hemineglect roBot), a ROS 2 software stack implementing a fully automated coaching pipeline for semicircular arm-pointing exercises on the TIAGo mobile manipulator (PAL Robotics), targeting post-stroke Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN), in which patients fail to orient toward or interact with stimuli in the contralesional hemispace.\n\nMethods: The robot’s end effector moves into the neglected hemispace as an exogenous attentional cue while the participant actively reaches toward it with the affected arm. The system extends a skeletal tracking framework with a Behavior Tree orchestrating exercise execution and per-repetition metric computation, a Coach node performing session-level adaptive difficulty progression, Italian empathetic text-to-speech feedback, and a scoreboard for therapist supervision. The scoring metric combines arm-alignment angle and hand–end-effector distance in a logical AND gate, yielding a normalized 0–100 score partitioned into three performance bands (Fail <25, Acceptable 25–75, Great ≥75). A participant is promoted when the mean session score exceeds 75 and demoted when the fail ratio reaches 0.50. Sixteen healthy participants (mean age 54.5 ± 6.8 years) were divided into two groups of eight: a high-performance group performing all repetitions correctly, and a low-performance group following a controlled error pattern designed to trigger demotion. Kinematic time series from the robot’s onboard RGB-D camera were compared against a stereophotogrammetric gold standard (BTS SMART-DX EVO).\n\nResults: Scoring concordance between TIAGo- and mocap-derived classifications reached 100% (Cohen’s κ = 1.000) across all 120 repetitions, with no cross-band errors between Fail and Great. The executed arc trajectory showed near-perfect agreement with the commanded geometry (Pearson r > 0.99). Adaptive behavior was correct for all 16 participants.\n\nDiscussion: These findings verify that the onboard measurement chain reproduces gold-standard band assignments under the tested conditions and that the session-level decision pipeline operates end-to-end as specified. Validation of the scoring thresholds under naturally occurring, near-boundary performance remains necessary before clinical use.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Roberto Soldi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Bruna Maria Vittoria Guerra"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Stefania Sozzi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Francesco Lunghi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Leo Russo"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Micaela Schmid"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Stefano Ramat"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/crd9nh4vwqp5q.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/frobt.2026.1950821",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13730947/",
  "id": "crd9nh4vwqp5q",
  "issns": [
    "2296-9144"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2026.1950821",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223152937",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2026.1950821/pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13730947",
  "pmid": "42984616",
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/crd9nh4vwqp5q.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-07T12:23:54Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13730947",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2026.1950821"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2805|Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "HemiBot: design and technical validation of an adaptive Robotic coaching system for Unilateral Spatial Neglect rehabilitation",
  "title_text": "HemiBot: design and technical validation of an adaptive Robotic coaching system for Unilateral Spatial Neglect rehabilitation",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-08T12:21:14Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/crd9nh4vwqp5q",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Robotics and AI",
  "versions": []
}