SMA-Based Soft Exo-Glove

Abstract

Nowadays, robotic technologies are used in many fields, one of them is medicine. The breakthrough of technologies has enabled the development of robotic devices for rehabilitation therapies. The exoskeletons can be found as robotic device for rehabilitation therapy, whose rigidity limits the user's freedom of movement, complicating his interaction with the environment in an easy and natural way. To overcome this current limitation, researchers invest effort in the development of soft devices, wearable, portable and comfortable for patients, maintaining the rigid exoskeletons performance. The soft exo-glove proposed in this work, accomplishes three main previous features. It is actuated by Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) that reduce the device weight and turn it into a portable exoskeleton. The exo-glove is easier to wear and it is comfortable. The proposed exo-glove represents a safe and adaptable solution for the human hand rehabilitation therapy with special emphasis on the activities of daily living (ADL). We are going to analyze exo-glove performance during ADL movements, e.g. gripping different objects with diverse dimensions, in which, other exoskeletons have some limitations. In terms to address this challenge, a specific position controller was designed which enables the single displacement of each finger with a linear actuator precision of 5 %.