A Research of a Hand Rehabilitation Support Device using by Pneumatic Soft Actuators

In this paper, we describe rehabilitation (hereafter referred to as "rehabilitation") is necessary to improve the quality of life (QOL) and reintegration into society for those who have lost the use of their hands and fingers due to accidents or diseases. Rehabilitation is performed in stages by qualified physical therapists and occupational therapists, and includes splint therapy to release contractures, joint range-of-motion exercises to normalize joint function, and muscle strengthening exercises to restore muscle strength necessary for daily activities. Ideally, these rehabilitation activities should be continued on a daily basis.It is said that rehabilitation for the elderly should be conducted seamlessly in a familiar community with the patient at the center of the rehabilitation program. However, it is difficult for patients whose homes are located in remote areas or who require assistance for transportation to go to the hospital. Therefore, the authors are conducting research on a device that supports rehabilitation at home in order to improve the continuity of rehabilitation. However, the rehabilitation support devices currently available are large and very heavy, with compressors, vacuum pumps, and other equipment, making it difficult to use them at home. Currently, the operation of rehabilitation support devices has a problem where the air supplied to the actuator is momentary, resulting in discontinuous movements that differ from the original rehabilitation motions. Therefore, in this study, we installed flow resistances in the piping system of a bellows actuator and conducted experiments to clarify how the magnitude of the flow resistance affects the actuating force. The findings are reported in this paper.