Research on mechanical design of a multi-function finger rehabilitation robot

Training with robots for injured fingers has achieved the efficacy of treatment. However, most of finger rehabilitation robots just have bending/extending movement. This paper presents a new multi-function finger rehabilitation robot with a simple mechanical structure, which could help fingers and thumb realize bending/extending movement and stretch/adduction movement. The paper firstly analyzes the hand physiological movement mechanism, confirming the motion range of each finger’s joint. Based on the fingers movement rules, the robot driving structure has been developed, which includes thumb training module and fingers training module and frame. In order to prove the rationality of mechanism design, an experiment was conducted. The experiment proved that the mechanism can run smoothly, and its rope wheels also drive well without skidding phenomenon as well as its tension is appropriate.