Rehabilitation interventions for motor practice are necessary for patients with impaired hand function to regain strength and range of motion. Clinical rehabilitative therapies are found to be costly and insufficient in terms of frequency due to their limited accessibility. Recently, advancements in robotic devices have improved accessibility and have been useful in facilitating repetitive tasks. This work presents a magnetically-controlled soft robotic glove with a quick and tunable stiffening mechanism that is also safe for the patients and conveniently portable. The magnetic control is achieved by employing a unique array of EPMs within a medium of MRF-immersed fibers. This array of EPMs enables customized rehabilitation depending on the patient’s pathology. The glove is designed to have a discontinuous structure that mimics the anatomy of the fingers, which comprises joints and linkages. The glove is tested for flexion, extension, abduction, and pinch grip exercises, and the impact of the stiffness change provided by the glove is validated through an EMG sensor. This design offers a portable, safe, easy-to-control, and customizable wearable rehabilitative technology for patients with hand impairment. / 2026-05-23T00:00:00Z
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/48869 |
| Date | 24 May 2024 |
| Creators | Albayrak, Meliha Deniz |
| Contributors | Ranzani, Tommaso |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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