Development of an Anatomical Wrist Therapy Exoskeleton (AW-TEx)

Abstract

This paper describes the anatomical design of a novel wrist therapy device. The device automatically adjusts to the size of the wearer's wrist and is designed so it only applies a torque about the wrist joint, avoiding any uncontrolled interaction forces which commonly occur with standard rotary joint exoskeletons. The device will also adapt for any wrist misalignment that occurs during donning of the device and throughout therapy. Biomechanical modeling techniques have been used to determine the wrist range of motions and the exoskeleton is designed to match this. The form of the system was then designed with ergonomics and human-robot attachment considerations. A prototype was built and an interaction control system developed. Preliminary results are presented for healthy people and also those who have cerebral palsy to validate the feasibility of the system for wrist rehabilitation.