A Review on Soft Hand Rehabilitation Robot

Zhe      Chen; Fangfang      Zhan; Jingang      Jiang; Dianhao      Wu; Jianpeng      Sun

doi:10.2174/1872212117666220722141338

Abstract

Background: In China, there are more than 2 million patients with hand function impairment caused by trauma and stroke each year. Since the hand is an important sensory and motor organ of the human body, the loss of hand function seriously affects people's daily activities and work. The current hand function rehabilitation robots are mainly rigid. The rigid robot has the problems of fixed rehabilitation track, high rigidity, and poor comfort. To solve this series of problems, soft hand function rehabilitation robots have been vigorously developed.

Objective: To introduce the classification, advantages and disadvantages, and development trend of existing soft hand rehabilitation robots. To provide for other researchers to understand its development status and future development trends.

Methods: The various products and patents of soft hand rehabilitation robots are summarized, and the structural features, merits, and demerits of typical soft hand rehabilitation robots are introduced.

Results: By analyzing a variety of soft hand function rehabilitation robots, the characteristics and the current problems of soft hand function rehabilitation robots are determined, the development trend of soft hand function rehabilitation robots has been prospected, the current research status of soft hand function rehabilitation robots are discussed and the prospects are carried out.

Conclusion: Because the rate of increase in patients with hand function loss is much greater than that of rehabilitation physicians, many patients cannot receive timely and effective treatment. Therefore, hand function rehabilitation robots have received people’s attention. Compared with rigid rehabilitation robots, soft hand function rehabilitation robots have diverse rehabilitation trajectories, high comfort, and low rigidity, so it is very necessary to develop soft hand function rehabilitation robots. In the future, soft hand function rehabilitation robots will inevitably develop towards simplification of structure, more comfortable wearing, economical, diversified functions, better curative effect, and safer development.

Keywords: Airbag, bionic mechanism, hand function rehabilitation, pneumatic artificial muscle, pneumatic cylinder, soft actuator, soft hand.

Graphical Abstract

[1]
J.J. Yu, J.W. Qian, L.Y. Shen,  and Y.N. Zhang, "Mechanism and control experiment of a finger rehabilitation device", Chinese J. Tissue Eng. Res., vol. 14, no. 30, pp. 5596-5600, 2010.
[2]
B. Preising, T.C. Hsia,  and B. Mittelstadt, "A literature review: Robots in medicine", IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Mag., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 13-22, 1991.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/51.82001] [PMID:  18238365]
[3]
H.H. Ku, "Design of an ontology-oriented hand rehabilitation service platform for rheumatoid arthritis patients", Workshops of the 34th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, WAINA 2020, Caserta, Italy, 2020, pp. 169-177.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44038-1_16]
[4]
M.W. Cohen,  and D. Regazzoni, "Hand rehabilitation assessment system using leap motion controller", AI Soc., vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 581-594, 2019.
[5]
X. Chen, L. Gong, L. Wei, S.C. Yeh, L. Da Xu, L. Zheng,  and Z. Zou, "A wearable hand rehabilitation system with soft glove", IEEE Trans. Industr. Inform., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 943-952, 2021.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TII.2020.3010369]
[6]
R. Pinto, P. Abreu, J.F. Carneiro,  and T. Restivo, "Hand rehabilitation and haptic surfaces: A tentative prototype", IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 52, no. 27, pp. 427-433, 2019.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.12.701]
[7]
P. Tran, S. Jeong,  and J.P. Desai, "Voice-controlled soft exotendon (FLEXotendon) glove for hand rehabilitation", 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Macau, China, 2019, pp. 4834-4839.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IROS40897.2019.8967669]
[8]
K. Li, P. Boyd, Y. Zhou, Z. Ju,  and H. Liu, "Electrotactile feedback in a virtual hand rehabilitation platform: Evaluation and implementation", IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng., vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 1556-1565, 2019.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2018.2882465]
[9]
Z. Sun, Z. Guo,  and W. Tang, "Design of wearable hand rehabilitation glove with soft hoop-reinforced pneumatic actuator", J. Cent. South Univ., vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 106-119, 2019.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11771-019-3986-x]
[10]
C. Ng, "User perspectives on robotics for post-stroke hand rehabilitation", The 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference, PA, USA, 2019, pp. 700-702.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3308561.3356108]
[11]
D. Wang, Q. Meng, Q. Meng, X. Li,  and H. Yu, "Design and development of a portable exoskeleton for hand rehabilitation", IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng., vol. 26, no. 12, pp. 2376-2386, 2018.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2018.2878778] [PMID:  30387735]
[12]
M. Cohen, I. Voldman, D. Regazzoni,  and A. Vitali, "Hand rehabilitation via gesture recognition using leap motion controller", Proceedings- 2018 11th International Conference on Human System Interaction, Gdansk, Poland, 2018, pp. 404-410.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HSI.2018.8431349]
[13]
S. Lu, D. Chen, C. Liu, Y. Jiang,  and M. Wang, "A 3-D finger motion measurement system via soft strain sensors for hand rehabilitation", Sens. Actuators A Phys., vol. 285, pp. 700-711, 2019.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2018.12.004]
[14]
J.H. Zou, Human anatomy., Science Press: Beijing, 2012.
[15]
J. Que, T.M. Wang, D.S. Chen, Y.K. Jiang, J.Y. Mao,  and M. Wang, "Improving the pressure bearing capability of soft pneumatic actuators for hand rehabilitation based on a novel sealing method", 2018 IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Computing and Robotics, RCAR 2018, Kandima, Maldives, 2018, pp. 331-336.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RCAR.2018.8621804]
[16]
W.Q. Hu, L. Chang,  and S. Chang, "Effect of early rehabilitation on functional recovery of hand injury", Chinese J. Rehab. Med., vol. 21, no. 012, pp. 1121-112, 2006.
[17]
J. Liu, J. Mei, X. Zhang, X. Lu,  and J. Huang, "Augmented reality-based training system for hand rehabilitation", Multimedia Tools Appl., vol. 76, no. 13, pp. 14847-14867, 2017.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-4067-x]
[18]
S.Y. Liu, D.Y. Meng, L. Cheng,  and M. Chen, "An iterative learning controller for a cable-driven hand rehabilitation robot", Proceedings IECON 2017 - 43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Beijing, China, 2017, pp. 5701-5706.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IECON.2017.8216989]
[19]
I. Afyouni, F.U. Rehman, A.M. Qamar, S. Ghani, S.O. Hussain, B. Sadiq, M.A. Rahman, A. Murad,  and S. Basalamah, "A therapy-driven gamification framework for hand rehabilitation", User Model. User-adapt. Interact., vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 215-265, 2017.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11257-017-9191-4]
[20]
B. Liu, Y.R. Zhang, D.W. Ren,  and J.T. Li, "Kinematics modeling of human hand index finger", Robot, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 214-218, 2007.
[21]
E.J. Koeneman, R.S. Schultz, S.L. Wolf, D.E. Herring,  and J.B. Koeneman, "A pneumatic artificial muscle hand therapy device", International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, San Francisco, USA, 2005, pp. 2711-2713.
[22]
K.X. Xing, Q. Xu, J. Huang, Y.J. Wang,  and J. Wu, "A novel wearable robot of hand repetitive therapy", Zhongguo Jixie Gongcheng, vol. 20, no. 20, pp. 2395-2398, 2009.
[23]
K. Tadano, M. Akai, K. Kadota,  and K. Kawashima, "Development
of grip amplified glove using bi-articular mechanism with pneumatic
artificial rubber muscle", 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Anchorage Convention District, Alaska, USA, 2010, pp. 2363-2368.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2010.5509393]
[24]
P.J. Li,  Research on finger rehabilitation training system based on virtual reality, M.S. thesis, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China, 2017.
[25]
M.X. Lin, G.Y. Ma, F.Q. Liu, A.Q. Song,  and Q.S. Sun, "Wearable rehabilitation glove and method", C.N. Patent 107,174,482, 2017.
[26]
S. Gu,  and S. Gu, "A pneumatic hand function rehabilitation glove", C.N. Patent 102,579,228, 2012.
[27]
S.S. Yun, B.B. Kang,  and K.J. Cho, "Exo-Glove PM: An easily customizable modularized pneumatic assistive glove", IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett., vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 1725-1732, 2017.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2017.2678545]
[28]
E.N. Ju, L. Wu,  and M.L. Feng, "Development of multi-cavity airbag three-layer structure soft finger", J. Dalian Jiaotong Univ., vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 63-66, 2018.
[29]
H.K. Yap, J.H. Lim, F. Nasrallah, J.C.H. Goh,  and R.C.H. Yeow, "A soft exoskeleton for hand assistive and rehabilitation application using pneumatic actuators with variable stiffness", IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, Seattle, WA, USA, 2015, pp. 4967-4972.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139889]
[30]
J. Jiang, Z. Min, X. Ma, Y. Zhang,  and S. Song, "Application of robot to hand function rehabilitation", Recent Pat. Mech. Eng., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 2-14, 2018.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2212797611666180118094318]
[31]
Y.M. Xie, Q.C. Ye,  and X.C. Huang, "A soft hand rehabilitation glove combining multiple rehabilitation training methods", C.N. Patent 110,141,456, 2019.
[32]
G.Y. Gu, L.S. Gai, F.F. Chen,  and X.Y. Zhu, "Wearable soft rehabilitation glove and control method and system thereof", C.N. Patent 109,223,430, 2019.
[33]
Q. Tu, B. Huang, P.Q. Su, X. Sui, P. Yan, D.H. Yue, G.X. Liu,  and D.W. Zhu, "A pneumatic rehabilitation glove", C.N. Patent 108,904,224, 2018.
[34]
P. Polygerinos, S. Lyne, W. Zheng, L.F. Nicolini, B. Mosadegh, G.M. Whitesides,  and C.J. Walsh, "Towards a soft pneumatic glove for hand rehabilitation", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Tokyo, Japan, 2014, pp. 1512-1517.
[35]
Y.Q. Fei, J.B. Wang,  and Q.T. Du, "Finger and wrist integrated soft rehabilitation glove", C.N. Patent 111,067,753, 2019.
[36]
W.B. Chen, C.H. Xiong, L.L. Yuan, P.M. Li, C.L. Liu,  and R.J. Yang, "A modular soft rehabilitation glove and system for assisting finger stretching exercises", C.N. Patent 108,371,610, 2018.
[37]
H. Zhao, Y. Li, A. Elsamadisi,  and R. Shepherd, "Scalable manufacturing of high force wearable soft actuators", Extreme Mech. Lett., vol. 3, pp. 89-104, 2015.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eml.2015.02.006]
[38]
Y.H. Liu, G.Z. Cao, H.C. Ren, Z. Zhang, B.Y. Huo, Q. Song,  and Y.B. Sun, "A pneumatic soft glove for hand function rehabilitation", C.N. Patent 108,392,375, 2018.
[39]
D.H. Weng, B. Wang, D.L. Niu, Y.Y. Yang, P. Zhang, Y.Y. Huang, Z.H. Qin, M. Zhao, Y.F. Zhou, N. Li, H.X. Yang, S.T. Tang, X.Y. Liang, Y.Y. Zhang,  and B.H. Li, "Rehabilitation glove", C.N. Patent 110,742,778, 2019.
[40]
C.L. Liu,  The design of a two-way soft actuator for hand motor function rehabilitation, M.S. thesis, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2019.
[41]
C.J. Shen, J.J. Zhou,  and F. Yang, "A kind of Soft driver and manufacturing method", C.N. Patent 111,358,665, 2020.
[42]
L.L. Yuan,  Design and implementation of soft exoskeleton rehabilitation hand system, M.S. thesis, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2018.
[43]
X.Q. Wang, Z.Y. Zhang, F. Xu, B. Liang,  and S.T. Wang, "A pneumatic soft actuator and its manufacturing method", C.N. Patent 110,270,986, 2019.
[44]
M. DiCicco, L. Lucas,  and Y. Matsuoka, "Comparison of control strategies for an EMG controlled orthotic exoskeleton for the hand", Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, LA, USA, 2004, pp. 1622-1627.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2004.1308056]
[45]
H.Y. Xu, J.N. Zhao,  and N.R. Bao, "Progress on the mechanism and repair of the rotator cuff injury", J. Med. Postgrad., vol. 28, no. 02, pp. 212-217, 2015.
[46]
S.Z. Fang,  Systematic research on multi-degree-of-freedom exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator, M.S. thesis, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China, 2018.
[47]
M. Bouzit, G. Popescu, G. Burdea,  and R. Boian, "The Rutgers master II-ND force feedback glove", Proc. IEEE VR Haptics Symposium, Orlando, FL, USA, 2002, pp. 145-152.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HAPTIC.2002.998952]
[48]
D.K. Feng,  Design and experiment of hand rehabilitation device based on SMA, M.S. thesis, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China, 2019.
[49]
S.S. Yu, J.Y. Sun, B.T. Zhu,  and Y.Q. Wang, "Shape memory alloy driver-driven soft rehabilitation glove and preparation method thereof", C.N. Patent 111,264,948, 2020.
[50]
J.B. Wu,  Design and realization of the control system of the soft drive rehabilitation manipulator, M.S. thesis, Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin, China, 2018.
[51]
L. He,  Design and implementation of hand function rehabilitation training robot, M.S. thesis, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China, 2019.
[52]
C.L. Liu, Y. Tian, J.Q. Zhang, Y.X. Tan, Y.Y. Zou, J.Y. Zheng,  and H.B. Huang, "Motor control device suitable for soft rehabilitation glove", C.N. Patent 108,392,374, 2018.
[53]
S.C. Zhu, M. Li, G.H. Xu, J. Xie, B. He, C.G. Zhao,  and H. Yuan, "Functional rehabilitation robot for exoskeleton fingers with multi segment continuous structure", J. Xi’an Jiaotong Univ., vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 17-22, 2018.
[54]
J.L. Zhang,  Research on finger rehabilitation system based on virtual reality technology, M.S. thesis, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2012.
[55]
Y.B. Fan, X.Y. Liu, M.H. Zhang, H.Q. Huo, J.S. Peng,  and Z.Y. Li, "Virtual reality interactive training rehabilitation glove based on touch force", C.N. Patent 109,771,905, 2019.
[56]
B.R. Wang, "Multifunctional adaptive rehabilitation glove", C.N. Patent 107,550,687, 2017.
[57]
P. Polygerinos, Z. Wang, K.C. Galloway, R.J. Wood,  and C.J. Walsh, "Soft robotic glove for combined assistance and at-home rehabilitation", Robot. Auton. Syst., vol. 73, pp. 135-143, 2015.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2014.08.014]
[58]
H.L. Li,  Design and research of hand function rehabilitation robot, M.S. thesis, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China, 2014.
[59]
H.L. Li, L. Xie, S.K. Wei, J. Jiang,  and W.W. Yu, "Hand function rehabilitation robot technology", Machine Des. Res., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 24-28, 2014.
[60]
Z.K. Gan,  Design and research of electrical control system of hand function rehabilitation robot, M.S. thesis, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, 2011.
[61]
H.J. Wu, L.N. Li, L. Li, T. Liu,  and Y. Wang, "Research progress on comprehensive intervention of hand function rehabilitation robot after stroke", J. Biomed. Eng., vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 151-156, 2019.
[62]
F. Lu, Y.J. Zhan, A.L. Xie, X.Y. Huang,  and X.L. Lei, "Digital functional examination and training effect observation after finger full shape reconstruction", J. Front. Med., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 62-63, 2020.
[63]
G.J. Wang,  Design of finger rehabilitation training robot system, M.S. thesis, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, 2018.
[64]
T.M. Wang,  and Y. Tao, "My country’s industrial robot technology status and industrialization development strategy", Jixie Gongcheng Xuebao, vol. 50, no. 9, pp. 1-13, 2014.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.3901/JME.2014.09.001]
[65]
Y.J. Ni, "Talking about the function and development trend of
rehabilitation training robot", Academic Conference of the Professional
Committee of Convalescent and Rehabilitation of Chinese
Society of Rehabilitation Medicine, Guangzhou, China, 2014, pp. 223-226.
[66]
F. Li,  and J.J. Zheng, "Research progress of hand rehabilitation robots in the treatment of hand dysfunction after stroke", Chinese J. Physical Med. Rehab., vol. 38, no. 9, pp. 709-712, 2016.
[67]
X.H. Guo, J. Wang,  and G.H. Xu, "The latest progress in the research of hand function rehabilitation robots", Chinese J. Physical Med. Rehab., vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 235-240, 2017.
[68]
Y. Mou,  Research on Exoskeleton Robot for Rehabilitation of Thumb Function, M.S. thesis, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, 2017.
[69]
Q.H. Wang, Y.K. Wei,  and L.M. Liu, "Progress in research and application of rehabilitation robots", Packaging Engineering, vol. 39, no. 18, pp. 83-89, 2018.
[70]
F.X. Yang, Z.F. Zhang, F.L. Li,  and B.L. Yang, "Effect of early rehabilitation training on functional recovery of patients with acute cerebral infarction", Chinese Manipul. Rehab. Med., vol. 6, no. 18, pp. 78-79, 2015.
[71]
L.C. Zhou, J.X. Lei,  and M.H. Yao, "Effect of ultra early rehabilitation nursing on neurological function recovery of patients with acute cerebral infarction", Lingnan J. Emerg. Med., vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 141-142, 2010.
[72]
F.K. Li, "Application of rehabilitation therapy in the recovery of upper limb and hand function of stroke patients", China Health Care Nutr., vol. 30, no. 13, pp. 145-146, 2020.
[73]
Y.P. Huo, A.M. Wang,  and C.S. Zhao, "Design of hand function rehabilitation training system based on force feedback", Cekong Jishu, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 6-10, 2019.
[74]
Z.H. Su,  and L. Zhang, "The effect of combining internal fumigation and hand function rehabilitation training with self-prepared muscle-generating and pulsatile decoction in postoperative hand trauma patients", China J. Pharmaceut. Econom., vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 119-121, 2020.
[75]
E.B. Brokaw, I. Black, R.J. Holley,  and P.S. Lum, "Hand Spring Operated Movement Enhancer (HandSOME): A portable, passive hand exoskeleton for stroke rehabilitation", IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng., vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 391-399, 2011.
 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2011.2157705] [PMID:  21622079]
[76]
H.L. Yang, H.Y. Zhu,  and X.Y. Lin, "A review of research on exoskeleton wearable rehabilitation robots", Measur. Test. Technol., vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 40-44, 2019.

Rights & Permissions Print Cite

Journal Information

For Authors

For Editors

For Reviewers

Explore Articles

Open Access

Open Access Articles

For Visitors

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1872212117666220722141338	Print ISSN 1872-2121
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 2212-4047

Recent Patents on Engineering

A Review on Soft Hand Rehabilitation Robot

Abstract Play Pause

Graphical Abstract

Related Journals

Related Books

Abstract