Individuals with upper limb motor deficits due to neurological conditions, such as stroke and traumatic brain injury, may exhibit hypertonia and spasticity, which makes it difficult for these individuals to open their hand. The Hand Orthosis with Powered Extension (HOPE) Hand was created in 2018. The performance of the HOPE Hand was evaluated by conducting a Box and Blocks test with an impaired subject. Improvements were identified and the HOPE Hand was mechanically redesigned to increase the functionality in performing grasps. The original motor configuration was reorganized to include active thumb flexion and extension, as well as thumb abduction/adduction. An Electromyography (EMG) study was conducted on 19 individuals (10 healthy, 9 impaired) to evaluate the viability of EMG device control for the specified user group. EMG control, voice control, and manual control were implemented with the HOPE Hand 2.0 and the exoskeleton system was tested for usability during a second Box and Blocks test.

<p>  </p> <p>To regain a healthy degree of hand function, injured patients require strenuous rehabilitation therapies with the expectation of gaining the full range of motion and strength necessary for performing activities of daily living (ADLs). Metacarpal fractures are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries and require occupational therapy after the immobilization phase. Obstacles, such as longer recovery times, high costs, or lack of trained physiotherapists, often present a barrier for individuals seeking adequate treatment. Repetitive extension and flexion therapy routines improve grasping functionalities when performed correctly and repetitively. Robotic devices, such as hand exoskeletons, have been found to make up for the lack of hand motor function and assist in grasping tasks performed in ADLs, improving users’ independence. To increase robot acceptability, wearable robots have been recently proposed as part of rehabilitation technologies. Hand rehabilitation systems are an active research interest; however, most studies focus on rehabilitating central nerve injuries. There is a lack of research on systems treating hand fracture injuries, explicitly focusing on function recovery involving the fingers. Integrating systems that provide the necessary dexterity in a user-friendly manner while keeping a compact and lightweight fashion remains challenging. This thesis describes the development of a Soft Hand Exoskeleton (SHE) for robotic hand rehabilitation. The system integrates a flexible glove-like body and a bio-inspired cable-driven transmission system for motion assistance. The exoskeleton’s usage effects were evaluated through a user study experiment. An electromyography (EMG) based analysis allowed us to assess the muscular effort demands of ADLs. Experimental results and evaluation metrics demonstrated a reduction in the total integrated muscular activity (TIMA) in the performance of common ADLs when wearing the SHE system. </p>

This thesis explores the field of robotic hand exoskeletons and their applications. These systems have emerged in popularity over the years, due to their potentials to advance the medical field as assistive and rehabilitation devices, and the field of virtual reality as haptic gloves. Although much progress has been made, hand exoskeletons are faced with several design challenges that are hard to overcome without having some tradeoffs. These challenges include: (1) the size and weight of the system, which can affect both the comfort of wearing it and its portability, (2) the ability to impose natural joint angle relationships among the user's fingers and thumb during grasping motions, (3) safety in terms of limiting the range of motions produce by the system to that of the natural human hand and ensuring the mechanical design does not cause harm or injury to the user during usage, (4) designing a device that is user friendly to use, and (5) the ability to effectively perform grasping motions and provide sensory feedback for the system to be applicable in various application fields. In order to address these common issues of today's state-of-the-art hand exoskeleton systems, this thesis proposes a mechanism design for a novel hand exoskeleton and presents the integration of several prototypes. The proposed hand exoskeleton is designed to assist the user with grasping motions while maintaining a natural coupling relationship among the finger and thumb joints to resemble that of a normal human hand. The mechanism offers the advantage of being small-size and lightweight, making it ideal for prolong usage. Several applications are discussed to highlight the proposed hand exoskeleton functionalities in processing sensory information, such as position and interactive forces. / MS / Hand exoskeletons are wearable devices that are designed to augment, reinforce, and/or restore hand performances and movements among the fingers and thumb. These hand exoskeleton systems have emerged in popularity within the medical field, where they serve as rehabilitation devices or assistive gloves, and within the field of virtual reality as haptic devices. Throughout the years, many hand exoskeleton designs have been proposed and even developed further into commercial products. Unfortunately, there still exist many design challenges for making an efficient and feasible hand exoskeleton without experiencing major tradeoffs. Some of the common challenges include designing a hand exoskeleton that is small in size, lightweight, and able to achieving natural grasping motions efficiently. As an attempt to overcome these design challenges, the work of this thesis presents a mechanism design for a novel hand exoskeleton that can serve as a general purpose glove across several applications. The design of the mechanism is described in detail with preliminary analysis. In addition, this thesis presents the design and development of several prototypes, which were made by extending the mechanism into fully integrated systems. The experimental validations of these prototypes are presented as well as their application potentials. To conclude the thesis, a discussion of the on-going future work is given.

Hand exoskeletons are wearable robotic devices which are used to compensate for impaired handmovements in patientswith impaired upper-limbs. These devices can either help patients to grasp objects for a therapeutic purpose or to performactivities of daily living. This Thesis describes the development of a novel hand exoskeleton, with a focus on the user, based on the product development methodology "the V-Model". Therefore, user needs are identified through interviews and a thorough literature review. Three potential concepts are developed and sub-sequential a concept is selected based on a logical decision process. A mathematical model of the selected concept is generated and then used for dimensioning the hand exoskeleton. Moreover, three variants of the hand exoskeleton are built as prototypes. Finally, the variants of the device are tested on a bench top. The result of the development process is a novel hand exoskeleton for the rehabilitation of upper motor neuron syndrome patients. Force and range of motion tests revealed, that a design with a higher level of underactuation is favourable. The design presented in this thesis does not reach the defined range of motion and force augmentation. However, the defined target values are the results of a conservative approach, thus are a challenge to reach. The augmented closing force and range of motion surpass other state of the art hand exoskeletons. Nevertheless, the augmented opening force under-performs in comparison with other designs. Decisively, a validation with users is needed for a usability assessment. / Exoskelett för händer är robotiska hjälpmedel som kan användas för att kompensera nedsatt muskelstyrka och rörlighet hos patienter med nedsatt muskelfunktion i armarna. Dessa hjälpmedel kan hjälpa patienter att greppa föremål i ett terapeutiskt syfte eller för att utföra vardagliga sysslor. Examensarbetet beskriver utvecklingsarbetet av ett nytt exoskelett med fokus på användaren genom att tillämpa produktutvecklingsmotodikens V-modell. Användarens krav och behov identifieras genom intervjuer och en gedigen litteraturstudie. Tre koncept utvecklas och ett vidareutvecklat koncept väljs slutligen baserat på en logisk beslutsprocess. En matematisk modell genereras och används för att dimensionera exoskelettet. Dessutom tillverkas tre prototyper av exoskelettet i olika utföranden för att slutligen utvärderas i en testrigg. Resultatet av utvecklingsprocessen är ett nytt handexoskelett ämnat för rehabilitering av patienter med övre motorneuronsjukdom. Tester som genomfördes för att mäta Kraft och rörlighet visade att en design med en högre grad av underaktuering är gynnsamt. Designen som presenteras här når inte upp till de krav som ställs på kraft och rörlighet, de målvärden som definieras är dock baserade på ett konservativt synsätt och är därmed svåra att uppnå. Exoskelettet producerar en högre stängningskraft och uppvisar bättre rörlighet än andra toppmoderna exoskelett. Exoskelettet underpresterar dock vad gäller den producerade öppningskraften jämfört med andra modeller och designen behöver valideras hos användarna för att användarbarheten ska kunna bestämmas.