A fabric-based soft hand exoskeleton for assistance: the ExHand Exoskeleton

Juan C Maldonado-Mejía; Marcela Múnera; Camilo A R Diaz; Helge Wurdemann; Mehran Moazen; Maria José Pontes; Marcelo Eduardo Vieira Segatto; Maxwell E Monteiro; Carlos A Cifuentes

doi:10.3389/fnbot.2023.1091827

A fabric-based soft hand exoskeleton for assistance: the ExHand Exoskeleton

Front Neurorobot. 2023 Jun 15:17:1091827. doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2023.1091827. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Telecommunications Laboratory (LabTel), Electrical Engineering Department, Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), Vitória, Brazil.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, Bogotá, Colombia.
³ Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁵ Federal Institute of Espírito Santo (IFES), Serra, Brazil.
⁶ School of Engineering, Science and Technology, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia.

Abstract

Introduction: The rise of soft robotics has driven the development of devices for assistance in activities of daily living (ADL). Likewise, different types of actuation have been developed for safer human interaction. Recently, textile-based pneumatic actuation has been introduced in hand exoskeletons for features such as biocompatibility, flexibility, and durability. These devices have demonstrated their potential use in assisting ADLs, such as the degrees of freedom assisted, the force exerted, or the inclusion of sensors. However, performing ADLs requires the use of different objects, so exoskeletons must provide the ability to grasp and maintain stable contact with a variety of objects to lead to the successful development of ADLs. Although textile-based exoskeletons have demonstrated significant advancements, the ability of these devices to maintain stable contact with a variety of objects commonly used in ADLs has yet to be fully evaluated.

Materials and methods: This paper presents the development and experimental validation in healthy users of a fabric-based soft hand exoskeleton through a grasping performance test using The Anthropomorphic Hand Assessment Protocol (AHAP), which assesses eight types of grasping with 24 objects of different shapes, sizes, textures, weights, and rigidities, and two standardized tests used in the rehabilitation processes of post- stroke patients.

Results and discussion: A total of 10 healthy users (45.50 ± 14.93 years old) participated in this study. The results indicate that the device can assist in developing ADLs by evaluating the eight types of grasps of the AHAP. A score of 95.76 ± 2.90% out of 100% was obtained for the Maintaining Score, indicating that the ExHand Exoskeleton can maintain stable contact with various daily living objects. In addition, the results of the user satisfaction questionnaire indicated a positive mean score of 4.27 ± 0.34 on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5.

Keywords: activities of daily living; assistive technologies; hand exoskeleton; soft actuators; soft robotics.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by The Royal Academy of Engineering—Industry-Academia Partnership Programme Colombia/UK (IAPP18-19\264), PrExHand Project, and the partial support of FAPES (209/2018—Edital Especial CPID and 459/2021), CNPq (310668/2021-2), and MCTI/FNDCT/FINEP (2784/20).