Abstract
This paper presents a novel exoskeleton mechanism for finger motion assistance. The exoskeleton is designed as a serial 2-degrees-of-freedom wearable mechanism that is able to guide human finger motion. The design process starts by analyzing the motion of healthy human fingers by video motion tracking. The experimental data are used to obtain the kinematics of a human finger. Then, a graphic/geometric synthesis procedure is implemented for achieving the dimensional synthesis of the proposed novel 2 degrees of freedom linkage mechanism for the finger exoskeleton. The proposed linkage mechanism can drive the three finger phalanxes by using two independent actuators that are both installed on the back of the hand palm. A prototype is designed based on the proposed design by using additive manufacturing. Results of numerical simulations and experimental tests are reported and discussed to prove the feasibility and the operational effectiveness of the proposed design solution that can assist a wide range of finger motions with proper adaptability to a variety of human fingers.
Highlights
Aging of population and stroke incidence are expected to significantly increase in the coming decades and become the second leading cause of disability in Europe as forecast, for example, in [1,2]
The built finger exoskeleton prototype has been tested experimentally to prove its feasibility as a finger motion exercising device in terms of it kinematic and operation behaviors
The finger exoskeleton can be worn with Velcro fasteners
Summary
Aging of population and stroke incidence are expected to significantly increase in the coming decades and become the second leading cause of disability in Europe as forecast, for example, in [1,2]. A stroke produces neuro-motory disabilities, including finger impairments. Since the movement of fingers is fundamental in activities of daily life, there is a strong motivation in focusing on finger rehabilitation as a high priority following an injury or a stroke. Researchers have widely addressed the topic for developing finger exoskeletons and/or similar wearable devices for finger rehabilitation and exercising, as reported, for example, in [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. The exoskeleton has three DOFs (degrees of freedom) in total, as each
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