Damping TENS-Induced Essential Tremor Symptoms in Activities of Daily Living Using the TuMove Wrist Exoskeleton

IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2023 Sep:2023:1-6. doi: 10.1109/ICORR58425.2023.10304605.

Abstract

Essential Tremor (ET) is the most frequent movement disorder in adults. Upper-limb exoskeletons are a promising solution to alleviate ET symptoms. We propose a novel wrist exoskeleton for tremor damping. The TuMove exoskeleton is light-weight, portable, easy to use, and designed for ADLs and activities requiring hand dexterity. We validated the effectiveness of our exoskeleton by inducing forearm tremors using TENS on 5 healthy subjects. Our results show that wrist ranges are generally kept in most of the ROM needed in ADLs. The damping system reduced more than 30% of the tremor's angular velocity during drinking and pouring tasks. Furthermore, the completion time of the Archimedes spiral was decreased by 2.76 seconds (13.0%) and for the 9-Hole-Peg-Test by 2.77 seconds (11.8 %), indicating a performance improvement in dexterity tasks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Activities of Daily Living
  • Adult
  • Essential Tremor*
  • Exoskeleton Device*
  • Humans
  • Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation*
  • Tremor
  • Upper Extremity
  • Wrist