Characterisation and evaluation of soft elastomeric actuators for hand assistive and rehabilitation applications

Abstract

Various hand exoskeletons have been proposed for the purposes of providing assistance in activities of daily living and rehabilitation exercises. However, traditional exoskeletons are made of rigid components that impede the natural movement of joints and cause discomfort to the user. This paper evaluated a soft wearable exoskeleton using soft elastomeric actuators. The actuators could generate the desired actuation of the finger joints with a simple design. The actuators were characterised in terms of their radius of curvature and force output during actuation. Additionally, the device was evaluated on five healthy subjects in terms of its assisted finger joint range of motion. Results demonstrated that the subjects were able to perform the grasping actions with the assistance of the device and the range of motion of individual finger joints varied from subject to subject. This work evaluated the performance of a soft wearable exoskeleton and highlighted the importance of customisability of the device. It demonstrated the possibility of replacing traditional rigid exoskeletons with soft exoskeletons that are more wearable and customisable.

Keywords:

• Soft robotics
• exoskeleton
• assistive
• rehabilitation
• soft actuators

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding information

This work was supported by the National University Health System (NUHS) – Clinical Imaging Research Center (CIRC) Seed Funding Grant [R-172-000-323-511] and supported by a National University of Singapore Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering Scholarship.