A hybrid, wearable exoskeleton glove equipped with variable stiffness joints, abduction capabilities, and a telescopic thumb

Abstract

Robotic hand exoskeletons have become a popular and efficient technological solution for assisting people that suffer from neurological conditions and for enhancing the capabilities of healthy individuals. This class of devices ranges from rigid and complex structures to soft, lightweight, wearable gloves. In this work, we propose a hybrid (tendon-driven and pneumatic), lightweight, affordable, easy-to-operate exoskeleton glove equipped with variable stiffness, laminar jamming structures, abduction/adduction capabilities, and a pneumatic telescopic extra thumb that increases grasp stability. The efficiency of the proposed device is experimentally validated through five different types of experiments: i) abduction/adduction tests, ii) force exertion experiments that capture the forces that can be exerted by the proposed device under different conditions, iii) bending profile experiments that evaluate the effect of the laminar jamming structures on the way the fingers bend, iv) grasp quality assessment experiments that focus on the effect of the inflatable thumb on enhancing grasp stability, and v) grasping experiments involving everyday objects and seven subjects. The hybrid assistive, exoskeleton glove considerably improves the grasping capabilities of the user, being able to exert the forces required to execute a plethora of activities of daily living. All files that allow the replication of the device are distributed in an open-source manner.