First, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Venkat Krovi, for giving me an opportunity to work under him as a Research Assistant. He was not only my mentor, but as a friend, he always provided me with valuable suggestions whenever I needed them most. I would like to express my gratitude to the committee members, Dr. Frank Mendel and Dr. Andres Soom for serving on my thesis committee and reading through my thesis and providing me with valuable suggestions. I would like to thank Dan Murray, Bill McDougall, Brian Wolf, and David Eley for giving me an opportunity to work with Fisher-Price, Inc and for giving me access to the 3D laser scanner and SLA machine. I would like to thank my lab members Rajan, Chin

Abstract—Variability in motor rehabilitation program outcomes can be attributed not only to individual components (human patient/rehabilitation equipment) but also to their system-level interactions. Thus, effective deployment of a rehabilitation program depends upon: 1) suitable therapist selection of user–device ergonomics; 2) adjustable device settings; and 3) exercise regimen parameters; to achieve desired system-level motor performance. In this paper, we discuss aspects of creation of a virtual design environment, leveraging tools from musculoskeletal analysis, optimization, and simulation-based design, to permit therapists to rapidly evaluate and systematically customize rehabilitation programs. Specifically, this framework is intended to facilitate 1) parametric study of ergonomic/device/regimen settings on musculoskeletal performance; 2) use of design tools such as optimization for decision support in arriving at the best program; and 3) scaffolded examination of linkage between form and function by iterative what–if type of analyses. We use two case studies (bicep-curling and motor rehabilitative driving) to highlight benefits of such simulation-based rehabilitation program evaluation. Index Terms—Computational musculoskeletal analysis, rehabilitation, simulation-based optimization. I.

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