Performance evaluation of a VR-based hand and finger rehabilitation program

A five-bar linkage mechanism with two active and three passive degrees-of-freedom (rotations) at the end-effector was used as a haptic device and integrated inside a Matlab/Simulink general framework, in which Handshake proSENSE toolbox was chosen for the haptic and graphic rendering, conceiving a virtual reality based rehabilitation system. Such device can generate forces at the fingertip up to 20 [N], which is suitable for finger and hand rehabilitation. Virtual reality based rehabilitation was conducted in two patients: one with a stroke, and the other with musculoskeletal disease. Two different kind of exercises were proposed. The system was tested successfully. A finger and hand rehabilitation case study and their results are presented. These results show the effectiveness of the proposed application.