Rehabilitation medicine is one of the four components of health care recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). With the progress of physical and rehabilitation medicine, WHO published the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) in 2001, and suggested that all members use the ICF in daily clinical service. Under this classification, rehabilitation focuses on the implementation of functions more than any other branch in the medical field.

Intelligent devices have now grown into an important part of modern medicine, twenty years after the publication of the ICF. These have a variety of applications, such as exoskeletons allowing patients with lower limb paralysis to immediately resume the functions of standing and walking, or prosthetic limbs with sensors allowing patients to feel force feedback. Consequently, disability no longer means suffering. As technology develops and improves, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) will play an increasingly prominent role in this field, although there is already widespread use in both experimental and clinical applications. Innovation and development in rehabilitation devices means functional recovery is an achievable goal for an ever-increasing number of people.

This Special Issue will focus on the research and development of AI/smart devices related to physical and rehabilitation medicine, including the study of new devices, related patent reports, methodologies, and related talent training. Researchers are therefore invited to contribute new primary research articles including the development of experimental and clinical studies as well as review articles in this area.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Impact of high-level technologies for rehabilitation on disability reduction from a patient-centred and ICF-based perspective
• Study of lower limb exoskeleton robot applications in specific clinical diseases
• Research progress in rehabilitation medicine robot platforms
• Study of unpowered exoskeletons with integrated IoT sensors and their application in rehabilitation medicine
• Clinical studies of wearable sleep monitoring devices in rehabilitation treatment of insomnia patients
• Studies on the application of remote heart rate monitoring patches in cardiac rehabilitation
• Optimisation algorithms and implementation of blood oxygen monitoring modules for lung rehabilitation
• Human-machine interface development for rehabilitation
• Novel biomedical signal（e.g., EEG, EMG, ECG) processing for rehabilitation.
• Studies on the brain-computer interface related to rehabilitation medicine (such as cortical signal capture and interpretation)
• Medical training and treatment schemes based on evolutionary algorithms
• Research on the application of motion capture and 3D modelling in sports rehabilitation
• The role of artificial intelligence in avoiding rehabilitation medicine training injury
• Research on the application of virtual reality technology in remote rehabilitation medicine teaching or home training
• Clinical studies of 3D modelling and 3D printing in rehabilitation engineering
• Review of trends in artificial intelligence in rehabilitation medical diagnosis
• Time demands on high-tech rehabilitation device developers
• The important role of interdisciplinary teams in the development of high-tech rehabilitation medical equipment