Modular exoskeleton for hands rehabilitation based on smart hydrogels
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17979/ja-cea.2025.46.12210Keywords:
Assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering, Biomedical Mechatronics, antification of physiological parameters for diagnosis and treatment assessment, Human-centered automation and design, Knowledge engineering and knowledge-based systems, Soft roboticsAbstract
Hand movement disorders are severe health afflictions, especially among the elderly, which can hinder the ability to perform daily tasks and significantly worsen the patient’s quality of life. Rehabilitation therapies are fundamental for counteracting symptoms and restoring the patient’s autonomy. Technology and, specifically, robotics, is increasingly integrated into this kind of treatment to improve its performance. In this work, we present the current development of a soft exoskeleton for hand rehabilitation, composed of hydrogel pneumatic actuators. Using an expert system based on ontologies, we want to adapt the robotic glove design automatically to the afflicted joints and deformations of the patient, taking advantage of the actuator modularity. We will show a real implementation for a particular case of this device (which is able to flex four fingers), detail its design components, and explain the hardware and software used for its control.
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Copyright (c) 2025 David Sanguino Nieto-Márquez, Jesús de la Morena Duque, Antonio Adán Oliver, Andrés Salomón Vázquez Fernández Pacheco, Francisco Ramos de la Flor
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
