Sensor Glove Implemented with Artificial Muscle Set for Hand Rehabilitation

Stroke is a disease caused by either a shortage of blood supply to the brain and causes upper limb motor impairment. Given that lots of the surviving stroke patients are required to undergo physical rehabilitation, we proposed a hand physical rehabilitation system which targets at the post stroke patients. The system consists of two parts: a digital glove implemented with sensors on each joint as the rehabilitation reference and a soft exoskeleton set as the motor system. The users are able to wear the equipment easily and can obtain real time performance monitoring via attached flex sensors. This is an ergonomic, light and portable rehabilitation system within a room area which provides the patient with more independence. In this paper, we described the design idea and the usage of this system.