Ismail Rifky, Ariyanto Mochammad, Setiawan Joga D, Hidayat Taufik, Nuswantara Limbang K
Depertment of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia.
Center for Biomechanics Biomaterials Biomechatronics and Biosignal Processing (CBIOM3S) Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia.
HardwareX. 2024 May 7;18:e00537. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e00537. eCollection 2024 Jun.
Hand exoskeleton robots have been developed as rehabilitation robots and assistive devices. Based on the material used, they can be soft or hard exoskeletons. Soft materials such as fabric can be used as a component of the wearable robot to increase comfortability. In this paper, we proposed an affordable soft hand exoskeleton based on fabric and motor-tendon actuation for hand flexion/extension motion assistance in daily activities. On-off control and PI compensator were implemented to regulate finger flexion and extension of the soft exoskeleton. The controllers were embedded into a microcontroller using Simulink software. The input signal command comes from the potentiometer and electromyography (EMG) sensor to drive the flexion/extension movement. Based on the experiments, the proposed controller successfully controlled the exoskeleton hand to facilitate a user in grasping various objects. The proposed soft hand exoskeleton is lightweight, comfortable, portable, and affordable, making it easily manufactured using available hardware and open-source code. The developed soft exoskeleton is a potential assistive device for a person who lost the ability to grasp objects.
手部外骨骼机器人已被开发用作康复机器人和辅助设备。根据所使用的材料，它们可以是软质或硬质外骨骼。诸如织物之类的软质材料可作为可穿戴机器人的一个组件，以提高舒适度。在本文中，我们提出了一种基于织物和电机肌腱驱动的经济实惠的软质手部外骨骼，用于在日常活动中辅助手部屈伸运动。采用开环控制和PI补偿器来调节软质外骨骼的手指屈伸。这些控制器使用Simulink软件嵌入到一个微控制器中。输入信号指令来自电位计和肌电图（EMG）传感器，以驱动屈伸运动。基于实验，所提出的控制器成功地控制了外骨骼手，以方便用户抓取各种物体。所提出的软质手部外骨骼重量轻、舒适、便携且经济实惠，使其能够使用现有的硬件和开源代码轻松制造。所开发的软质外骨骼对于失去抓握物体能力的人来说是一种潜在的辅助设备。
