Design of a single-dof active hand orthosis for neurorehabilitation

This paper is about the design of an active hand orthosis for hand rehabilitation in the acute and sub-acute phase after stroke. The device presented here was conceived as an add-on for the cable-suspended robots for upper limb rehabilitation developed at the Department of Innovation in Mechanics and Management of University of Padua, Italy. With this improvement, we aim to deliver coordinated distal and proximal robotic active-assistive mobilization in the early days after stroke. The hand orthosis employs one elastic actuator to produce force controlled trajectories of the fingers, keeping a highly compliant interaction with the patient during the assisted training of the paretic hand. This feature is particularly desirable in the rehabilitation treatment of acute and sub-acute patients. In the paper, both medical and engineering issues are addressed, and mechanical and control system design are presented with major details.