Exotendon glove system for finger rehabilitation after stroke

Abstract

An innovative electric-powered glove system has been prototyped to support finger rehabilitation for people with motor impairment on their fingers after a stroke. This glove system is composed of a leather glove which has a unique actuation mechanism called an exotendon system, a muscle activity sensor is fixed on the upper forearm to detect user’s efforts during finger exercises and a controller including a microcomputer and a drive unit. An evaluation has been conducted based on A-B design of a single subject study and it has been observed that finger exercises carried out using the prototyped glove system has effectively improved the finger functionality of a stroke patient.