Robot Hand Imitating Disabled Person for Education/Training of Rehabilitation

Abstract

Because rehabilitation therapy students have few chances to train on disabled persons, we developed a robot hand for finger and wrist rehabilitation training, working hand with doctors and therapists, based on new design concepts imitating the disabled human hand. A joint torque rehabilitation program is calculated using distributed tactile sensors and a model of contracture joints with tendon adhesion. The hand is controlled by the force control based on torque control. The hand's effectiveness was demonstrated experimentally, and the robot is used by therapists to evaluate its efficacy.