Development of Functional Recovery Training Device for Hemiplegic Fingers with Finger-expansion Facilitation Exercise by Stretch Reflex

Abstract

This paper develops a functional recovery training device to perform repetition facilitating exercise for hemiplegic finger rehabilitation. On the facilitation exercise, automatic finger expansion can be realized and facilitated by stretch reflex, where a stimulation forces is applied instantaneously on flexion finger for making strech reflex and resistance forces are applied for maintaining the strech reflex. In this paper, novel parallel mechanisms, force sensing system with high sensitivity and resistance accompanying cooperation control method are proposed for sensing, controlling and realizing the stimulation force, resistance forces, strech reflex and repetition facilitating exercise. The effectivities and performances of the device are shown by some experiments.