Design and Characterization of a 3D Printed Soft Robotic Wrist Sleeve with 2 DoF for Stroke Rehabilitation

Abstract

Stroke incidence may cause severe upper limb impairment, reducing the quality of life of patients who are unable to carry out daily functional tasks. In recent years, soft robotics has emerged as a promising avenue in providing robot assisted rehabilitation due to its compliant nature which makes it safe for interaction with humans. Task-specific rehabilitative exercises require the mobility of multiple upper limb joints but majority of the soft robotic exoskeletons thus far focuses on rehabilitating the hand. To date, soft robotic wrist exoskeletons are lacking in providing sufficient degree of freedom to the wrist in safe operating conditions. In our work, we present a 3D printed Soft Robotic Wrist Sleeve (SWS) that is capable of providing wrist mobility in two degrees of freedom with sufficient torque and bending to recover at least 70% of a healthy individual's range of motion. We also describe the fabrication process of the fold-based design which may be adopted in other applications.