A Haptic Knob for Rehabilitation of Hand Function

• Published in: IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 356 - 366
• Main Authors: Lambercy, Olivier, Dovat, Ludovic, Gassert, Roger, Burdet, Etienne, Teo, Chee Leong, Milner, Theodore
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.09.2007
• Subjects: Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Fingers; Force control; Force measurement; Force sensors; Grasping; Hand; Hand function; Hand Strength; Haptic interfaces; haptic knob; human-oriented mechatronic design; Humans; Medical treatment; Movement Disorders - rehabilitation; Position measurement; Rehabilitation robotics; Robot kinematics; robotic rehabilitation; Robotics - instrumentation; Robotics - methods; Stroke Rehabilitation; Therapy, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Therapy, Computer-Assisted - methods; Touch; Transducers
• DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2007.903913
• ISSN: 1534-4320

This paper describes a novel two-degree-of-freedom robotic interface to train opening/closing of the hand and knob manipulation. The mechanical design, based on two parallelogram structures holding an exchangeable button, offers the possibility to adapt the interface to various hand sizes and finger orientations, as well as to right-handed or left-handed subjects. The interaction with the subject is measured by means of position encoders and four force sensors located close to the output measuring grasping and insertion forces. Various knobs can be mounted on the interface, including a cone mechanism to train a complete opening movement from a strongly contracted and closed hand to a large opened position. We describe the design based on measured biomechanics, the redundant safety mechanisms as well as the actuation and control architecture. Preliminary experiments show the performance of this interface and some of the possibilities it offers for the rehabilitation of hand function.