Advances in robotics technology offer unprecedented opportunities to improve rehabilitation pathways, but until now these technologies have focused primarily on neurological disease. The MIT Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation upper extremity (UE) robot is an impedance controlled, back-drivable, oblique-vertical vertical robot that has been designed such that it can safely exert controlled, graded forces to move or guide a limb, functioning in passive, active-assistive, active and resistive modes, providing objective data on the motion. A major advantage is its capacity for real-time, graded changes based on patient input, providing stability against random perturbations, increasing or withdrawing assistance and allowing for dose-specific treatment. The vertical robot device has been shown to be safe and well tolerated without any adverse effects such as shoulder pain.