https://biodesign.seas.harvard.edu/files/biodesignlab/files/2015_-_polygerinos_-_soft_robotic_glove_for_combined_assistance_and_at-home_rehabilitation.pdf

Soft robotic glove for combined assistance and at-home rehabilitation

In the last decade, we have witnessed a drastic change in the form factor of audio and vision technologies, from heavy and grounded machines to lightweight devices that naturally fit our bodies. However, only recently, haptic systems have started to be designed with wearability in mind. The wearability of haptic systems enables novel forms of communication, cooperation, and integration between humans and machines. Wearable haptic interfaces are capable of communicating with the human wearers during their interaction with the environment they share, in a natural and yet private way. This paper presents a taxonomy and review of wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand, focusing on those systems directly addressing wearability challenges. The paper also discusses the main technological and design challenges for the development of wearable haptic interfaces, and it reports on the future perspectives of the field. Finally, the paper includes two tables summarizing the characteristics and features of the most representative wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand.

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Wearable Haptic Systems for the Fingertip and the Hand: Taxonomy, Review, and Perspectives

Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems 参加報告

Developments in hardware systems of active upper-limb exoskeleton robots

In this paper, we present the design of a soft wearable exoskeleton that comprises of a glove embedded with pneumatic actuators of variable stiffness for hand assistive and rehabilitation application. The device is lightweight and easily wearable due to the usage of soft pneumatic actuators. A key feature of the device is the variable stiffness of the actuators at different localities that not only conform to the finger profile during actuation, but also provides customizability for different hand dimensions. The actuators can achieve different bending profiles with variable stiffness implemented at different localities. Therefore, the device is able to perform different hand therapy exercises such as full fist, straight fist, hook fist and table top. The device was characterized in terms of its range of motion and maximum force output. Experiments were conducted to examine the differences between active and passive actuation. The results showed that the device could achieve hand grasping and pinching with acceptable range of motion and force.

A soft exoskeleton for hand assistive and rehabilitation application using pneumatic actuators with variable stiffness

In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of hand exoskeleton technologies for rehabilitation and assistive engineering, from basic hand biomechanics to actuator technologies. Because of rapid advances in mechanical designs and control algorithms for electro-mechanical systems, exoskeleton devices have been developed significantly, but are still limited to use in larger body areas such as upper and lower limbs. However, because of their requirements for smaller size and rich tactile sensing capabilities, hand exoskeletons still face many challenges in many technical areas, including hand biomechanics, neurophysiology, rehabilitation, actuators and sensors, physical human-robot interactions and ergonomics. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of active hand exoskeletons for applications in the areas of rehabilitation and assistive robotics. The main requirements of these hand exoskeleton devices are also identified and the mechanical designs of existing devices are classified. The challenges facing an active hand exoskeleton robot are also discussed.

Current hand exoskeleton technologies for rehabilitation and assistive engineering

Introduction: Clarification of the relationship between external stimuli and brain response has been an important topic in neuroscience and brain rehabilitation. In the current study, using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we attempted to investigate cortical activation patterns generated during execution of a rehabilitation robotic hand. Methods: Ten normal subjects were recruited for this study. Passive movements of the right fingers were performed using a rehabilitation robotic hand at a frequency of 0.5 Hz. We measured values of oxy-hemoglobin(HbO), deoxy-hemoglobin(HbR) and total-hemoglobin(HbT) in five regions of interest: the primary sensory-motor cortex (SM1), hand somatotopy of the contralateral SM1, supplementary motor area (SMA), premotor cortex (PMC), and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Results: HbO and HbT values indicated significant activation in the left SM1, left SMA, left PMC, and left PFC during execution of the rehabilitation robotic hand(uncorrected, pConclusions: Our results appear to indicate that execution of the rehabilitation robotic hand could induce cortical activation.

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The cortical activation pattern by a rehabilitation robotic hand: a functional NIRS study

Since the first industrial robot was introduced in the 1960s, robotic technologies have contributed to enhance the physical limits of human workers in terms of repeatability, safety, durability, and accuracy in many industrial factories including those of the automobile, consumer electronics and shipbuilding industries. In the 21st century, robots are expected to be further applied in healthcare, which requires procedures that are objective, repetitive, robust and safe for users. Fueled by the rapid improvements of medical imaging and mechatronics technologies, healthcare robots have been rapidly adopted in almost every stage of the medical procedure by surgeons and physical therapists. In this chapter, we describe applications and the state of the art of healthcare robotics developed in the last decade. We focus on research and clinical activities that have followed successful demonstrations of early pioneering robots such as daVinci telesurgical robots and LOKOMAT training robots. First, we categorize major areas of healthcare robotics. Second, we discuss robotics for surgical operating rooms. Third, we review rehabilitation and assistive technologies. Finally, we summarize challenges and limitations of biomedical robotics as assistive tools for medical personnel.

Robotics for Healthcare

This paper presents the design and development of a customizable force measurement unit (FMU). The sensing mechanism is based on a monolithic structure incorporating a flexure with an interrupter and photo-sensors. The FMU is able to measure force by the deformation of the flexure, which results in a difference in the intensity of infrared light detected. Owing to the simplicity of the proposed structure and the sensing method, the FMU is an adaptable sensing platform with high design flexibility. We performed finite element method (FEM) simulations to systematically determine a set of design variables and characterized the static and dynamic properties of the fabricated FMU. We demonstrated that the FMU shows comparable performance to a widely used off-the-shelf sensor (Mini45, ATI) and can be used as a compact and accurate force sensor for various applications.

Design and characterization of a photo-sensor based force measurement unit (FMU)

In this paper, the design of a high precision device using a Linear Delta manipulator was proposed to compensate for the tremor signal in three translational directions. A Linear Delta manipulator is a suitable tremor suppression device due to the simple structure and high stiffness with the vertical direction in the application of micro manipulation such as microsurgery and cell manipulation. In order to implement the mechanism of the Linear Delta manipulator to the device, three voice coil motors and three linear encoders with high resolution were used. The flexure mechanism was applied to the device to avoid the friction effect of the small ball joint. Finally, the experiments for the validation of the proposed device were performed as follows: (1) position control in each axis for accuracy, and (2) sine wave tracking (500 μm, 12Hz) for bandwidth of the system.

Gwang Min Gu

Papers

Current hand exoskeleton technologies for rehabilitation and assistive engineering

The cortical activation pattern by a rehabilitation robotic hand: a functional NIRS study

Robotics for Healthcare

Design and characterization of a photo-sensor based force measurement unit (FMU)

Design of a novel tremor suppression device using a linear delta manipulator for micromanipulation