Mechatronic Integration of Humanoid Exoskeleton Hand Rehabilitation System

Abstract

In the past ten years, more and more robots are developed. Some are used for hazardous operation and others are used for industrial automation purposes, such as humanoid robot and industrial robot. However, there is another type of robot which is called assistive humanoid robot. The assistive humanoid robot looks very similar to human’s body that can help human to finish some daily tasks, such as moving heavy things, walking up stairs and raising your hand, etc. Besides, the assistive robot absolutely does a great help if it is applied to the patient who are suffering from the severe diseases, or who has difficulty to move his/her arm or leg. The robot can assist the disable arm or leg in moving again. So, people can use this device to manipulate the disable hand to do some easy tasks, such as holding cup for water drinking, or picking and placing some light items [2] Also, it can be used as a device to provide a safe and intensive rehabilitation training for the patients, and it has been proved that assistive robot is effective in assisting the therapist [1][6]. The assistive humanoid robot not only helps patients for recovery or assists patients for simple everyday tasks, but also effectively promotes human’s living quality. However, even though the assistive robot for elbow, wrist or leg has already been widely developed and used in hospital trials, few projects and assistive robotic devices for hand rehabilitation are found in the market [3][7].