Mechatronic device to assist therapies during hand fingers rehabilitation

Abstract

This work presents a novel application of a four-bar mechanism to assist therapies during hand fingers rehabilitation. The system is a mechatronic device able to perform fingers flexoextension exercises and can be adapted to different hand sizes. Fingers flexoextension analysis is based on a kinematic finger model from index to little to determine the motion trajectory. A four-bar mechanism is proposed to develop this path and guide the fingertip in rehabilitation therapies. The kinematic analysis of the proposed mechanism is presented and simulated using MATLAB. Finally, a prototype for one finger was designed and built to validate the trajectories.