Purpose
Currently, rehabilitation medical care is expensive, requires a large number of rehabilitation therapist and which can only limit in the fixed location. In addition, there is a lack of research on the structure optimization and theoretical analysis of soft actuators for hand rehabilitation. In view of the problems above, this paper aims to propose a cheap, portable, wearable soft multiple joints rehabilitation glove.
Design/methodology/approach
First, this paper determined the hyperelastic constitutive model by material tensile test. Second, the soft actuator’s internal longitudinal section shape was optimized through the comparison of three diverse chamber structures. Meanwhile, the motion model of the soft actuator is established by the finite element model analysis method. Then, this paper established the constitutive model of the soft actuator according to the torque equilibrium equation and analyzed the relationship between the soft actuator’s bending angle and the input air pressure. This paper has verified that the theoretical model is correct through the soft actuator bending test. Finally, rehabilitation gloves were manufactured according to the model and the rehabilitation performance and grasping ability of gloves were verified through experiments.
Findings
The optimization results show that the internal semicircular cavity has better performance. Then, the actuator performance is better after adding the external arc structure and optimizing the physical dimension. The experimental results show that the trajectory of the actuator conforms to the mathematical model and rehabilitation gloves can meet the needs of rehabilitation treatment.
Practical implications
Rehabilitation gloves made of actuators can help patients with hand dysfunction in daily rehabilitation training. Then, it can also assist patients with some fine and complicated hand movements.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a new type of soft rehabilitation glove, which is composed of new soft actuators and adapting pieces. The new actuator is small enough to be fitted to the knuckle of the glove to move each joint of the finger.
In this paper, a cam-linkage mechanism with a swing follower with variable pivot has been studied. In this mechanism, the pivot of the swing follower is installed on a slider with an adjustable track direction, the follower performs a complex planar motion, and the motion range of the output angle can be adjusted according to the output requirements. In order to synthesize this mechanism, firstly, the relevant model is established and the basic structural parameters are optimized by considering the assembly conditions and the pressure angle under the limit position of the movement track of the follower mounting slider. Subsequently, the inverse method and the envelope theory are employed to derive the cam contour coordinates. Finally, the corresponding follower motion law is selected, the corresponding cam contour coordinates are calculated, and the entire cam contour curve is obtained using spline interpolation. An automatic design system for cam contours is developed. The processes are carried out through design examples and verified through motion simulations and prototype experiment. The present work can enrich the design theory of cam-linkage mechanisms.
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