A Soft Pneumatic Robotic Glove for Hand Rehabilitation After Stroke

Abstract

This paper presents the design and fabrication of a soft pneumatic finger and its application to rehabilitation equipment for assisting patients after a stroke. The soft actuator has multiple air chambers continuously next to each other was fabricated by the casting process. The material of the soft actuator is silicone platinum. For making a soft actuator, we designed the 3D model in CAD software and printed the prototypes with a 3D printing machine. The design of the robotic fingers is from the human finger's mechanism because it has a flexible movement in a small scope. We combined these fingers with a glove by mounting them on the glove, formed a rehabilitation device supporting the after-stroke patients. Because the soft pneumatic robotic glove weighs 140g, it makes it light, comfortable, safe, easy to operate, use, and accessible to all users. Additionally, we can control the force, bending angle, and response time by controlling the air pressure inside the fingers. The results showed that the glove could grasp and hold the objects with a small mass.