The Robotics Institute, School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
Sensors (Basel). 2023 Oct 11;23(20):8395. doi: 10.3390/s23208395.
Hand-function recovery is often a goal for stroke survivors undergoing therapy. This work aimed to design, build, and verify a pneumatic hand training device for its eventual use in post-stroke rehabilitation. The system was built considering prior research in the field of robotic hand rehabilitation as well as specifications and design constraints developed with physiotherapists. The system contained pneumatic airbag actuators for the fingers and thumb of the hand, a set of flex, pressure, and flow sensors, and software and hardware controls. An experiment with the system was carried out on 30 healthy individuals. The sensor readings were analyzed for repeatability and reliability. Position sensors and an approximate biomechanical model of the index finger were used to estimate joint angles during operation. A survey was also issued to the users to evaluate their comfort levels with the device. It was found that the system was safe and comfortable when moving the fingers of the hand into an extension.
手部功能的恢复通常是接受治疗的中风幸存者的目标。本工作旨在设计、制造和验证一种气动手部训练设备，以便最终用于中风后的康复。该系统的设计考虑了先前在机器人手部康复领域的研究，以及与物理治疗师共同制定的规范和设计限制。该系统包含用于手部手指和拇指的气动气囊执行器、一组弯曲、压力和流量传感器以及软件和硬件控制。对该系统进行了一项包含 30 名健康个体的实验。对传感器读数进行了重复性和可靠性分析。位置传感器和食指的近似生物力学模型用于在操作过程中估计关节角度。还向用户发放了一份调查问卷，以评估他们对该设备的舒适度。结果发现，当将手部的手指伸展时，该系统是安全且舒适的。
