A Novel Pneumatic Soft Exoskeleton Rehabilitation Glove for Extension Training to Hand Rehabilitation

Abstract

Recently, pneumatic soft robots have been widely applied in hand rehabilitation. This study proposes a pneumatic soft exoskeleton glove for finger extension training. The glove features a multi-air-chamber hip joint airbag design, driving finger extension from the palm's interior to its exterior. The accompanying inflation and deflation system has six outlets for airflow and adjustable pressure. The analytical model of the hand is built for understanding the structure and its motion. In addition, this describes the design and manufacturing method for the airbags. Then, a series of experiments on the output force of the exoskeleton proceeded to verify the exoskeleton. At an airbag pressure of 0.2 Bar, the output force is 3.65N; at 0.3 Bar, the output force increases to 10.46N. Ultimately, the effectiveness of this soft exoskeleton glove for finger extension training is verified through practical evaluation of the actual system.