A Hybrid Control Strategy for Tendon-actuated Robotic Glove and Functional Electrical Stimulation – A Preliminary Study

Abstract

People who suffered a stroke, or spinal cord injury, still rely on the use of exhaustive physical therapy for recovery. When the aftereffects of these illness act on upper limbs as the hand, this causes a great impact on their quality of life. As alternative resources to the physical therapy, functional electrical stimulation and exoskeletons, or wearable robotic gloves, are consolidating as important resources to help to address this problem. Functional electrical stimulation has been proved to be an efficient rehabilitative technology, while exoskeletons are assistive technology helping people with a deficiency in their daily activities. In order to put these technologies working together, we propose a hybrid control strategy, making use of a tendon-driven robotic glove and functional electrical stimulation. Our aim is develop a glove-like orthosis for hand with the advantages of both technologies. This combined control strategy may have the potential to be used for hand rehabilitation.