Exploring a Novel Rehabilitation Soft Robot Design for Stroke Patients With Clenched Fists

Abstract

The clenched fist is a typical example of spasticity, which presents as overactive muscle activity and excessive tightness of the finger flexors for stroke patients. To regain hand and finger mobility, patients must be engaged in activity-based rehabilitation therapy. This paper presents a novel soft robotic device for finger rehabilitation made with a curling elastomer structure that can fit under a stroke patient’s clenched fingers before actuation and produce force to push the clenched fingers open when actuated pneumatically. With a unique two-layered structure, three soft robot prototypes with different inextensible materials were built and tested. Preliminary testing data correlating the air pressures and forces created by various prototypes of our soft robots are presented to compare their performance.