Design of an active dynamic hand – wrist orthosis for rehabilitation of the hand muscles

Keywords: Hand rehabilitation, rehabilitation at home, rehabilitation engineering, engineering design, hemiplegic hand, biomechanical model Rehabilitation process has some progress thanks to using robotic devices in rehabilitation engineering. One of the recent research area is to develop portable devices which are allow rehabilitation at home. In this way, rehabilitation costs and rehabilitation period are reduced. In this study, hand and wrist exercise devices are developed for suitable at home use, wearable, with active actuators and low cost. Two prototypes has been manufactured suitable for dorsal side and palmar side of the hand. They are different, but they are based on same principles. Design for palmar side of the hand is protected by Turkish Patent and Trademark Office with utility model registered. It is expected that these devices can be used for hemiplegic hand rehabilitation first. Beside, devices can be used for treatment of loss of the movements on the hand such as nerve paralysis, nerve compression, tendon injury and sports injuries. The biomechanical model of the human hand has been composed in this study in order to determine operating conditions of the actuators and force transmission system. After the simulation of the movement, joint torques of the fingers and the wrist movement has been calculated. Clinical trials has been conducted in healthy and patient subjects with ethical approval in order to determine the effects of the device worn on the dorsal side of the hand. After the muscle measurement in healthy subjects, it is understood that the muscle activation has been increased thanks to flexion/extension glove. In the patient studies, it is understood that the device is suitable for rehabilitation of the hemiplegic hand. If the prototypes are commercialized, a device contributing the competitive power of our country dependent on foreign markets will be in the medical device market. One of the future study is to make improvements on the control unit of the device. In this way, the control algorithm of the device can be performed using EMG signals.