A New Underactuated Mechanism of Hand Tendon Injury Rehabilitation

Abstract

Repetitive hand movement is often used as a rehabilitation technique in order to regain hand movement and strength. A wearable hand rehabilitation device can help physiotherapist to extend training and enhance the quality of rehabilitation exercises. For ease of use, the wearable system must be designed light and small. This paper presents a new design concept for hand tendon injury rehabilitation robots. The designed system is a single-actuator device with the capability of applying rehabilitation training on all the joints of the fingers except thumb by using an exotendon network which is planted on the surface of a soft glove. This system is actuated by using only one wire which passes through a path on the glove. In addition, this system has a splint based structure of pins and elements which is attached to the other side of the glove in order to constrain movements of the joints. This system can actuate the joints over a full range of motion.