Designing Online Multiplayer Games with Haptically and Virtually Linked Tangible Robots to Enhance Social Interaction in Therapy

The social aspects of therapy and training are important for patients to avoid social isolation and must be considered when designing a platform, especially for home-based rehabilitation. We proposed an online version of the previously proposed tangible Pacman game for upper limb training with haptic-enabled tangible Cellulo robots. Our main objective is to enhance motivation and engagement through social integration and also to form a gamified multiplayer rehabilitation at a distance. Thus, allowing relatives, children, and friends to connect and play with their loved ones while also helping them with their training from anywhere in the world. As well as connecting therapists to their patients through haptically linking capabilities. This is especially relevant when there are social distancing measures which might isolate the elderly population, a majority of all rehabilitation patients.