A robotic hand for rehabilitation of wrist and fingers

Abstract

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a common neural disease among people with repetitive wrist movements. It affects the sensation and movement of the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and half of the ring finger. The syndrome can be treated effectively through therapeutic exercises in the early stages of diagnosis or through surgery in more severe cases. However, the lack of physiotherapists poses a significant challenge in hospitals where thorough observation is required. The proposed rehabilitation robot focuses on wrist and finger exercises designed explicitly for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and intended for clinical use. The sensors detect the patient’s range of motion and display the data for the therapist, who can then determine the appropriate exercises. Finger exercises include flexion-extension, mimicking grasping patterns, while wrist exercises include flexion-extension and hyperextension. The rehabilitation program consists of three stages and several iterations, progressing according to the patient’s recovery, which can be observed through the data collected from the sensors. The rehabilitation robot utilizes an under-actuation method that drives proximal interphalangeal, and distal interphalangeal joints of the four fingers using two servo motors for finger rehabilitation. The thumb is actuated using a separate servo motor. A stepper motor actuates wrist movement. A mathematical model was developed to simulate the movements of the linkage system, which is deployed in the sagittal plane of the fingers. The effectiveness of the rehabilitation robot has been verified through simulations and experiments.