TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Series C · 2008 · 13 citations · 0 references
MedicineRehabilitation MedicineRobotics EngineeringAssistive TechnologyRehabilitationRoboticsAssistive DevicesAssistive Medical RobotsAssistive RoboticsHand RehabilitationRehabilitation RoboticsRobotic RehabilitationAssistive Robot DesignAssistive RobotsHand Function RecoveryHand Rehabilitation RoboticsPhysiotherapy RobotsRehabilitation RobotsRobot-assisted TherapyUpper Limb Rehabilitation Robotics
This paper presents a new hand motion assist robot for rehabilitation therapy. The robot is an exoskeleton with 18 DOFs and a self-motion control, which allows the impaired hand of a patient to be driven by his or her healthy hand on the opposite side. To provide such potential that the impaired hand is able to recover its ability to the level of a functional hand, the hand motion assist robot is designed to support the flexion/extension and abduction/adduction motions of fingers and thumb independently as well as the opposability of the thumb. Moreover, it is designed to support a combination motion of the hand and the wrist. The design specifications and experimental results are shown.