Experiments and kinematics analysis of a hand rehabilitation exoskeleton with circuitous joints

Biomed Mater Eng. 2015:26 Suppl 1:S665-72. doi: 10.3233/BME-151358.

Abstract

Aiming at the hand rehabilitation of stroke patients, a wearable hand exoskeleton with circuitous joint is proposed. The circuitous joint adopts the symmetric pinion and rack mechanism (SPRM) with the parallel mechanism. The exoskeleton finger is a serial mechanism composed of three closed-chain SPRM joints in series. The kinematic equations of the open chain of the finger and the closed chains of the SPRM joints were built to analyze the kinematics of the hand rehabilitation exoskeleton. The experimental setup of the hand rehabilitation exoskeleton was built and the continuous passive motion (CPM) rehabilitation experiment and the test of human-robot interaction force measurement were conducted. Experiment results show that the mechanical design of the hand rehabilitation robot is reasonable and that the kinematic analysis is correct, thus the exoskeleton can be used for the hand rehabilitation of stroke patients.

Keywords: Stroke patient; circuitous joint; continuous passive motion; hand exoskeleton.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Computer Simulation
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Exoskeleton Device*
  • Hand / physiopathology*
  • Humans
  • Man-Machine Systems
  • Models, Biological*
  • Motion Therapy, Continuous Passive / instrumentation*
  • Motion Therapy, Continuous Passive / methods
  • Prosthesis Design
  • Range of Motion, Articular*
  • Robotics / instrumentation*
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Therapy, Computer-Assisted / instrumentation
  • Therapy, Computer-Assisted / methods