Hand Rehabilitation Device to Prevent Contracture for Finger Joints using Pneumatic Soft Actuators

There has been increased interest in use of pneumatic actuators in many fields, such as medical care and welfare. In particular, proposed pneumatic soft actuator with soft material has many advantages such as low mass, flexibility, safety and user-friendliness. We therefore focus on the pneumatic actuators as a drive source of a rehabilitation device. This paper describes the concept, design, prototype and evaluation of the rehabilitation system with the actuators. The system has two difference actuators, stepping motors and pneumatic soft actuators. The stepping motors are used for moving the pneumatic actuator at right position for finger rehabilitation. The pneumatic soft actuators are also used for the range of motion (ROM) and relaxation exercise. We measured the flexure and extension angles in the rehabilitation test. As a result, we confirmed that the rehabilitation system is able to provide ROM exercise.