Publication

Single degree-of-freedom exoskeleton mechanism design for finger rehabilitation

Conference Article

Conference

IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR)

Edition

2011

Pages

1-6

Doc link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICORR.2011.5975427

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Authors

Abstract

This paper presents the kinematic design of a single degree-of-freedom exoskeleton mechanism: a planar eight-bar mechanism for finger curling. The mechanism is part of a finger-thumb robotic device for hand therapy that will allow users to practice key pinch grip and finger-thumb opposition, allowing discrete control inputs for playing notes on a musical gaming interface. This approach uses the mechanism to generate the desired grasping trajectory rather than actuating the joints of the fingers and thumb independently. In addition, the mechanism is confined to the back of the hand, so as to allow sensory input into the palm of the hand, minimal size and apparent inertia, and the possibility of placing multiple mechanisms side-by-side to allow control of individual fingers.

Categories

robots.

Scientific reference

E.T. Wolbrecht, D.J. Reinkensmeyer and A. Perez. Single degree-of-freedom exoskeleton mechanism design for finger rehabilitation, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 1-6, IEEE.