A Wrist and Finger Force Sensor Module for Use During Movements of the Upper Limb in Chronic Hemiparetic Stroke

Abstract

Previous studies using robotic devices that focus on the wrist/fingers following stroke provide an incomplete picture of movement dysfunction because they do not consider the abnormal joint torque coupling that occurs during progressive shoulder abduction loading in the paretic upper limb. This letter introduces a device designed to measure isometric flexion/extension forces generated by the fingers, wrist, and thumb during robot-mediated 3-D dynamic movements of the upper limb. Validation data collected from eight participants with chronic hemiparetic stroke are presented in this paper.