UC Davis

Stroke impacts over 795,000 people each year and 33% of survivors will suffer from significant motor impairments. 73-88% of stroke survivors experience upper limb impairments. This significantly decreases one’s ability to perform many daily tasks and can substantially reduce their quality of life and independence. Robotic hand exoskeletons are devices that can move a human hand to achieve grasping motions. They have the potential to support those with hand motor impairments during activities of daily living (ADL); however, current devices are primarily designed for use in rehabilitative environments and have not been effectively translated for use in daily living. This work aims to develop and characterize the mechanical and electrical performance of a hand exoskeleton that can perform common hand grasps, and has the potential to assist an impaired hand in ADL. Most current hand exoskeletons reported in literature are designed with only comfort and basic hand movements in mind. For example, many only actuate three digits, while others can only perform a whole-hand open/closed grasp. We planned to build an exoskeleton that can individually actuate all digits, complete multiple common grasps and therefore be more capable of assisting in various ADL. The goals of this work were to: 1) design a functional hand exoskeleton, 2) measure and characterize the force outputs, current draw, and power of the individual digits of the exoskeleton when worn on a mannequin hand, and 3) use manipulanda to characterize the exoskeleton’s ability to complete nine common adult hand grasps utilized in activities of daily living.