Abstract
This paper presents a hand rehabilitation support system for self-performing rehabilitation therapies. The developed system consists of hand exoskeleton device, which provides individual finger joint motion of disabled persons, and a self-motion control system joined with virtual reality (VR) technology. Most of disability caused by CVA (Cerebral Vascular Accident) or bone fracture are hemiplegia and impaired hand is only in one side. Based on the peculiarity of this disability, a self-motion control in which the impaired hand is driven by the healthy hand in the opposite side is adopted. In order to provide a pleasant and motivating training environment, VR environment displaying an enjoyable exercise is introduced. To verify the effectiveness of this system, the clinical trial was executed to one subject. Evaluation result of subject's functional recovery is also presented.
