基于织物的软机器人手套可辅助脊髓损伤后的手部功能。
Assisting hand function after spinal cord injury with a fabric-based soft robotic glove.
机构信息
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, 60 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
出版信息
J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2018 Jun 28;15(1):59. doi: 10.1186/s12984-018-0391-x.
BACKGROUND
Spinal cord injury is a devastating condition that can dramatically impact hand motor function. Passive and active assistive devices are becoming more commonly used to enhance lost hand strength and dexterity. Soft robotics is an emerging discipline that combines the classical principles of robotics with soft materials and could provide a new class of active assistive devices. Soft robotic assistive devices enable a human-robot interaction facilitated by compliant and light-weight structures. The scope of this work was to demonstrate that a fabric-based soft robotic glove can effectively assist participants affected by spinal cord injury in manipulating objects encountered in daily living.
METHODS
The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Hand Function Test was administered to 9 participants with C4-C7 spinal cord injuries to assess the functionality of the soft robotic glove. The test included object manipulation tasks commonly encountered during activities of daily living (ADL) and lift force measurements. The test was administered to each participant twice; once without the assistive glove to provide baseline data and once while wearing the assistive glove. The object manipulation subtests were evaluated using a linear mixed model, including interaction effects of variables such as time since injury. The lift force measures were separately evaluated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
RESULTS
The soft robotic glove improved object manipulation in ADL tasks. The difference in mean scores between baseline and assisted conditions was significant across all participants and for all manipulated objects. An improvement of 33.42 ± 15.43% relative to the maximal test score indicates that the glove sufficiently enhances hand function during ADL tasks. Moreover, lift force also increased when using the assistive soft robotic glove, further demonstrating the effectiveness of the device in assisting hand function.
CONCLUSIONS
The results gathered in this study validate our fabric-based soft robotic glove as an effective device to assist hand function in individuals who have suffered upper limb paralysis following a spinal cord injury.
背景
脊髓损伤是一种破坏性的疾病，会极大地影响手部运动功能。被动和主动辅助设备正越来越多地被用于增强丧失的手部力量和灵活性。软机器人技术是一个新兴的学科，它将机器人学的经典原理与软材料相结合，为主动辅助设备提供了一个新的类别。软机器人辅助设备通过柔顺和轻质结构实现人机交互。本研究旨在证明，一种基于织物的软机器人手套可以有效地帮助患有颈 4 至颈 7 脊髓损伤的参与者操纵日常生活中遇到的物体。
方法
多伦多康复研究所手功能测试（Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Hand Function Test）被用于 9 名颈 4 至颈 7 脊髓损伤患者，以评估软机器人手套的功能。测试包括日常生活活动（ADL）中常见的物体操纵任务和提升力测量。每个参与者都进行了两次测试，一次不戴辅助手套以提供基线数据，一次戴辅助手套。使用线性混合模型评估物体操纵子测试，包括变量的交互效应，如受伤时间。使用 Wilcoxon 符号秩检验分别评估提升力测量值。
结果
软机器人手套改善了 ADL 任务中的物体操纵。所有参与者和所有操纵物体的基线和辅助条件之间的平均得分差异均具有统计学意义。相对于最大测试得分，平均得分提高了 33.42±15.43%，表明手套在手功能方面在 ADL 任务中起到了显著的增强作用。此外，使用辅助软机器人手套时提升力也增加了，进一步证明了该设备在手功能辅助方面的有效性。
结论
本研究的结果验证了我们基于织物的软机器人手套作为一种有效的设备，可以帮助上肢瘫痪的脊髓损伤患者增强手功能。
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