ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1563263
This article is part of the Research TopicBiomechanics, Sensing and Bio-inspired Control in Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics, Volume IIView all 17 articles
A robot arm-assisted acupuncture system with motion and force monitoring: establishment and validation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- 2College of Medical Instruments, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, shanghai, China
- 3Eye and Ent Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 4Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naval Medical University, shanghai, China
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Objective: Traditional manual acupuncture faces challenges in quantifying stimulation parameters and preserving techniques consistency. This study presents a robot arm-assisted acupuncture system replicating manual manipulations with precise motion and force monitoring. Methods: System validation was conducted through a Laser Vibrometer to measure multiple frequency-amplitude combinations, followed by comparative analysis between robotic and manual acupuncture manipulations using both motion and force monitoring. Additionally, therapeutic efficacy was evaluated through an adjuvant arthritis rat model, comparing the analgesic effects between robotic and manual acupuncture at the Zusanli acupoint. Results:The Laser Vibrometer validation showed high precision, with mean absolute errors below 0.2 mm across all frequency-amplitude combinations. Comparative analysis demonstrated strong similarity between robotic and manual acupuncture in needle trajectories and force distributions, with Bhattacharyya coefficients of 0.9931 and 0.9976 for Lifting-Inserting and Mountain Burning manipulations. The robotic system achieved analgesic effects comparable to manual acupuncture, significantly improving pain thresholds over control groups. Conclusion: This work lays the groundwork for quantifiable, reproducible acupuncture therapy, driving the development of intelligent devices for standardized clinical applications.
Keywords: acupuncture robot system, motion and force monitoring, Acupuncture Analgesia, Adjuvant Arthritis, innovation in traditional medicine
Received: 19 Jan 2025; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Yu, Qiao, Ren, Xu, Wang, Gu and Yao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xin Wang, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naval Medical University, shanghai, China
Wei Gu, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naval Medical University, shanghai, China
Wei Yao, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.