Robotics and Emerging Technologies in Rehabilitation: The Robot as an Assistive Tool for Both Assessment and Personalized Intervention

Robotics and emerging intelligent technologies have recently advanced the field of rehabilitation, offering innovative tools to enhance assessment and intervention for individuals with motor and cognitive impairments. The integration of robotic systems, sensing technologies, and artificial intelligence enables quantitative and objective evaluation of patient performance, while simultaneously supporting personalized and adaptive therapeutic strategies. By leveraging multimodal sensing and data-driven algorithms, robotic platforms can assess functional capabilities, monitor progress, and dynamically adjust therapy parameters in real time. This dual role, robot as both an assessment instrument and an intervention tool, marks a paradigm shift toward personalized and scalable rehabilitation. Furthermore, the synergy between robotics and AI fosters the development of clinical decision support systems, bridging the gap between research and clinical practice and promoting evidence-based, patient-centered rehabilitation approaches.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance the understanding and development of robotic and intelligent systems as integrated tools for both assessment and personalized intervention in rehabilitation. Despite significant progress, translating robotic and AI-based technologies from laboratory prototypes to clinically validated, patient-centered applications remains a major challenge. This collection aims to gather contributions that explore how robotics, sensing systems, and artificial intelligence can jointly enable objective assessment, adaptive assistance, and continuous personalization of therapy. By focusing on quantitative evaluation, user engagement, and clinical applicability, this Research Topic seeks to identify key methodologies and technologies that can support scalable, data-driven rehabilitation solutions. Ultimately, the goal is to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue bridging engineering, neuroscience, and clinical practice, paving the way toward next-generation robotic systems capable of truly personalized and effective rehabilitation interventions.

This Research Topic includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:
• Robotic systems supporting quantitative assessment of motor and cognitive functions
• Robot-assisted interventions with therapist-supervised adaptive control strategies
• AI-driven models for patient-specific feedback and clinician decision support
• Integration of multimodal sensing for real-time monitoring and progress evaluation
• Human–robot interaction, motivation, engagement, trust, and caregiver integration
• Data-driven personalization of therapy protocols validated with clinical teams
• Translational approaches and validation studies from laboratory to clinical settings
• Ethical, societal, and regulatory aspects of technology as a caregiver support system

Keywords: Robotic Assessment, Personalized Intervention, Assistive Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, Biomedical signals, AI-Assisted Rehabilitation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.