Design, Modeling, and Fabrication of a 3-DOF Wrist Rehabilitation Robot

Abstract

Wrist impairment is a common cause of full/partial functional loss in the elderly. Such impairment may also occur after stroke, sport injuries or spinal cord injuries. A complete treatment process often includes certain rehab exercises after surgery or impairment to increase the wrist muscles tone. Therefore, extensive research has been conducted to design assistive rehab robots and devices to improve the treatment process. In this paper, a wrist rehabilitation robot is developed. The mechanical structure is fabricated based on the design requirements. The dynamic model of the robot is presented following anthropometric data. The final prototype, made at reasonable cost, offers three wrist degrees of freedom (DOF) and major wrist ranges of motion (ROM) required for standard wrist rehabilitation trainings.