Assistive Hand Device Using Silicone Actuators

Abstract

Stroke is a leading cause of hand disability in adults worldwide. This happens because of the abnormal increase in muscle tension in addition to the inability of the brain to acquire necessary motor skills for hand movements. The proposed Assisted Hand Device aids in grip and release of an object with the hand directly affected by the stroke, other injuries and age-related disabilities. This device is also capable of providing exercise therapies to users by providing robotic rehabilitation solutions to users struggling to regain the use of their hands. The Assisted Hand Device is designed as a silicone or soft rubber glove. The design comes with user friendly mode selection buttons to perform grip and release of the objects, and therapeutic functions, using one finger or two finger operations. The raspberry pi acts as the brain of the entire control system transmitting the sensor/push button switch signals to the actuators. The silicone actuators were selected by testing the material strength at different pressure levels. The system was designed and tested successfully with different sizes of objects using one, two and four finger operations. The thumb operation is not included in this design but to be considered as a future development of the project.