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. 2021 Dec 3;11(12):495.
doi: 10.3390/bios11120495.

An Instrumented Glove-Controlled Portable Hand-Exoskeleton for Bilateral Hand Rehabilitation

Shih-Hung Yang  1 , Chia-Lin Koh  2 , Chun-Hang Hsu  3 , Po-Chuan Chen  4 , Jia-Wei Chen  5 , Yu-Hao Lan  5 , Yi Yang  5 , Yi-De Lin  6 , Chun-Hung Wu  6 , Hsien-Kuang Liu  6 , Yu-Chun Lo  7 , Guan-Tze Liu  8 , Chao-Hung Kuo  5   9   10   11 , You-Yin Chen  5   7
Affiliations

An Instrumented Glove-Controlled Portable Hand-Exoskeleton for Bilateral Hand Rehabilitation

Shih-Hung Yang et al. Biosensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Effective bilateral hand training is desired in rehabilitation programs to restore hand function for people with unilateral hemiplegia, so that they can perform daily activities independently. However, owing to limited human resources, the hand function training available in current clinical settings is significantly less than the adequate amount needed to drive optimal neural reorganization. In this study, we designed a lightweight and portable hand exoskeleton with a hand-sensing glove for bilateral hand training and home-based rehabilitation. The hand-sensing glove measures the hand movement of the less-affected hand using a flex sensor. Thereafter, the affected hand is driven by the hand exoskeleton using the measured hand movements. Compared with the existing hand exoskeletons, our hand exoskeleton improves the flexible mechanism for the back of the hand for better wearing experience and the thumb mechanism to make the pinch gesture possible. We designed a virtual reality game to increase the willingness of repeated movement practice for rehabilitation. Our system not only facilitates bilateral hand training but also assists in activities of daily living. This system could be beneficial for patients with hemiplegia for starting correct and sufficient hand function training in the early stages to optimize their recovery.

Keywords: bilateral hand training; hand exoskeleton; hand-sensing glove; virtual reality game.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Framework of the bilateral hand practice, including a hand exoskeleton and a hand-sensing glove.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Hand exoskeleton (a) overview of the hand exoskeleton, (b) single-finger skeleton, (c) exploded view of the sliding spring, and (d) passive, active, and fixed sliding springs which are indicated by (1), (2), and (3), respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Transmission mechanism (a) assembly drawing, (b) Bowden cable module, and (c) connecting mechanism.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Electronic circuit of hand exoskeleton.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Top view of the displacement sensor installation on the hand exoskeleton, (b) front view of the displacement sensor installation.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Hand-sensing glove; (b) electronic circuits of the hand-sensing glove.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Framework of the virtual reality game including hand exoskeleton, hand-sensing glove, computer, and head-mounted display (optional).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Schematic of virtual archery game. The user intends to control the virtual hand by the less-affected hand of the user.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Implemented hand-sensing glove.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Demonstration of the virtual archery game. (a) The user is playing the virtual archery game. (b) The bow is pulled.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Bilateral hand training (a,b) and application of the hand exoskeleton for activities of daily living (c,d).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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