Development of hand rehabilitation system for paralysis patient – universal design using wire-driven mechanism –

We have developed a hand rehabilitation system for patients suffering from paralysis or contracture. It consists of two components: a hand rehabilitation machine, which moves human finger joints with motors, and a data glove, which provides control of the movement of finger joints attached to the rehabilitation machine. The machine is based on the arm structure type of hand rehabilitation machine; a motor indirectly moves a finger joint via a closed four-link mechanism. We employ a wire-driven mechanism and develop a compact design that can control all three joints (i.e., PIP, DIP and MP ) of a finger and that offers a wider range of joint motion than conventional systems. Furthermore, we demonstrate the hand rehabilitation process, finger joints of the left hand attached to the machine are controlled by the finger joints of the right hand wearing the data glove.