Design of a Soft Exo-glove for Rehabilitation and Assistance for Stroke Patients
Author: Lauren Gan
Faculty Supervisor: Hao Jiang
Department: Engineering
People who have suffered from disorders, injuries, or disease, such as a stroke, can experience a form of paralysis and struggle with hand or arm disabilities. For post-stroke patients, grasping capabilities are minimized as they lose hand functionality. While prosthetics, surgery, or occupational therapy could help those with hand disabilities help regain control of their finger movements, these things can be quite expensive and inaccessible. Developing assistive robotic technology in the form of exoskeletal hands, otherwise known as exo-gloves, help to actuate real human hand motion. These devices serve to help with rehabilitating patients by allowing them to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) at ease. There are different types of systems in soft robotic exo-gloves being cable-driven and pneumatic or hydraulic chambers that inflate to engage the user’s fingers in either flexion or extension. The cable-driven design is more favorable for our applications regarding soft exo-gloves and have been employed often with rehabilitative and assistive designed gloves.