Design and Production of a Novel Cable Supported Hand and Wrist Rehabilitation Robot: Prototype Study

Rehabilitation robots are being used to assist limbs in performing basic functions. Most of the existing rehabilitation robots are not accessible for home environments, mainly due to lack of portability and high costs. In this study, a versatile rehabilitation robot is developed that can improve individuals' quality of life and can be used in clinical and in home environments, supporting treatment, and offering portability, wearability, and adaptability to individual needs. A novel four bar mechanism supported position controller is developed which is equipped with Bowden cable transmission on the fingers. Electrical actuators that facilitate hand movement have been selected based on their lightweight design and the ability to generate the necessary power. The robot is aimed to perform passive, isometric and active exercises regarding flexion/extension and radial/ulnar deviation movement experiments in order to illustrate performance of the proposed design. Experiments with a healthy subject are planned and followed through a human–machine interface software that is controlled by a microcontroller with an embedded program. Finally, the results of the experiments are presented separately for each finger owing to exercise type. The results of a healthy subject show that the developed rehabilitation robot sufficiently performed the planned tasks in the selected range. Moreover, it is proved that the designed and manufactured robot is feasible for clinical use to acquire the planned tasks after patient trials.