Biomimetic hand exotendon device (BiomHED) for functional hand rehabilitation in stroke

Significant functional impairment of the hand is commonly observed among stroke survivors. In order to restore the functional use of the affected hand, we developed a biomimetic device that assists in generating functional movements of the hand. The device is actuated by exotendons that replicate the kinetic functional of the hand muscle-tendons, therefore it can reproduce the spatial finger joint coordination patterns of the functional manual tasks (e.g., power grip and pinch) with a reduced number of actuators. The system includes a thumb actuation mechanism, whose action is coordinated with finger exotendons to perform various manual tasks, thereby restoring the functional use of the hand. This paper presents the design of the device and the preliminary data of the functional movement generation by the system.