Design, Implementation and Control of an Underactuated Hand Exoskeleton

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel linkage-based underactuated hand exoskeleton designed for rehabilitation and daily activities, detailing its design, control strategies, and potential applications.

Contribution

It presents a new exoskeleton design with comprehensive control strategies, expanding its use for assistive and haptic applications.

Findings

Successful implementation of the exoskeleton prototype

Effective control strategies demonstrated

Potential for diverse rehabilitation and assistive uses

Abstract

I present the design, implementation and control of a novel, linkage-based, underactuated hand exoskeleton aimed to assist patients with hand disabilities during grasping tasks for robot assisted physical rehabilitation or robot assisted activities of daily living. Even though the proposed exoskeleton was designed with the purpose of assisting users during interactions with real objects around them, its use can be extended for haptic applications as well. In this thesis, I will deeply mention the exoskeletons in the literature, detail the design decisions and implement various control strategies to use this exoskeleton for different applications in the future.