Design of Finger Rehabilitation Device for Pinching Motion Using Tendon-driven Balloon Actuator

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a hand rehabilitation device for pinching motion for people with hemiplegia. Patients who have hemiplegia are increasing due to the aging of society in Japan; the number of therapists who support rehabilitation of hemiplegia is insufficient. Therefore, the demand of robots which support the rehabilitation is increasing. In the hand rehabilitation, it is important to conduct the finger pinching motion to perform activity of daily living. However, in the hand rehabilitation robots that have been developed, these provide only grasp motion. From this reason, we aimed to develop a finger rehabilitation device for pinching motion. This device consists a glove, the balloon actuator, and tension springs. The device was able to conduct the pinching motion. In this paper, we report the mechanism, design and basic characteristics of the developed rehabilitation device.