The Design of the Upper and Lower Limb Somatosensory Rehabilitation System Based on Users’ Requirements
Authors: Zhe Hu , Li Yi 
Published: July 2023

In the context of China's aging population and the increasing number of paralyzed patients due to stroke and other diseases, the demand for rehabilitation training services for the elderly is gradually increasing. However, the intensity and repetitiveness of exercise training for upper and lower extremity rehabilitation make patients bored with rehabilitation training, leading to slower recovery. From the perspective of promoting the user's active participation in rehabilitation training, this study is based on the affinity diagram method (KJ), KANO model, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP), combined with a user journey map, to sort out and analyze the user needs of the upper and lower limb somatosensory rehabilitation system and identify critical design requirements to optimize the user's medical rehabilitation experience.The user journey map is a full-stage process analysis tool that obtains the behavioral paths of users at different stages of performing upper and lower extremity rehabilitation through observation and interviews, based on which pain points and opportunity points are uncovered and can be used as initial user requirements. The Kano model is a qualitative demand analysis method that helps to classify the demand attributes of users of upper and lower limb somatosensory rehabilitation systems and filter out the most core user needs. AHP theory is a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis and research methods, using the method of solving the eigenvectors of the judgment matrix, which can quantify and calculate the importance weight of user needs, and design according to the quantified results can help improve user satisfaction.The combination of the Kano model and AHP theory can quantify the user requirements obtained from the research and obtain the core design requirements. Therefore, the research path is divided into five steps: first, the initial identification of user requirements based on the user journey map; second, the organization of user requirements based on the KJ method; third, the screening of user requirements based on Kano model; fourth, the quantification of user requirements based on AHP theory; fifth, the design output based on data conclusion, this innovative research method can help designers accurately identify key requirements.According to the conclusion of the research data, the physiological rehabilitation needs and the professional guidance needs of users in the process of rehabilitation training have the greatest weight, and the design of the upper and lower limb somatosensory rehabilitation system revolves around these two types of core needs, including two main modules: (1) Somatosensory rehabilitation game module: Based on the mirror neuron rehabilitation therapy, the rehabilitation training movements are designed into a rehabilitation movement game based on somatosensory technology, which increases the fun of rehabilitation training. (2) Virtual Assistive Robot Module: It acts as a virtual therapist during the rehabilitation training, guiding patients to perform correct rehabilitation exercises and providing real-time and continuous feedback.By constructing the KJ-Kano-AHP design research model and combining it with the user journey map to acquire, analyze and quantify user requirements, it provides direction and theoretical support for the design of upper and lower limb somatosensory rehabilitation systems, and also provides ideas for solving similar problems.