Bilateral rehabilitation of hand grasping with an underactuated hand exoskeleton

In this work we present a bilateral rehabilitation system for the hand based on a novel underactuated hand exoskeleton to assist hand opening/closing and a pair of pressure-sensorized graspable objects. In particular the novel hand exoskeleton provides self-adaptability to different hand sizes and a more effective transmission of forces. In the system, the grasping force measured at the healthy side is used to modulate the assistance of the hand exoskeleton at the impaired side. Utilizing simpler and more reliable pressure-sensorized graspable objects instead of biosignals might allow the system to adapt to residual motor capabilities of the impaired hand. System performance of the robotic assisted, bilateral grasping tasks have been experimented with 3 healthy subjects.