Design of fabric-based soft robotic glove for hand function assistance

Abstract

This research presents design and development of prototype fabric-based wearable soft exoskeleton. The soft glove employs motor-tendon for assisting the flexion and extension motion of the user’s hand. Two linear actuators are used as the motor-tendon actuator system. On-off control is designed for controlling the displacement of a linear actuator connected by nylon strings to the soft glove. Step input is given to test the performance of the proposed on-off control. Based on the experimental result, the on-off control produced very small steady-state error. The resulted soft glove is attached on human healthy hand for assisting the finger flexion and extension to grasp designated objects. Based on the test result, the proposed soft glove can assist the user/wearer in grasping three different objects.