A Bidirectional Fabric-Based Soft Robotic Glove for Hand Function Assistance in Patients with Chronic Stroke

Abstract

Background Chronic stroke patients usually experience reduced hand functions, impeding their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) independently. Additionally, improvements in hand functions by physical therapy beyond six months after the initial onset of stroke are much slower than in the earlier months. As such, chronic stroke patients could benefit from an assistive device to enhance their hand functions, allowing them to perform ADLs independently daily. In recent years, soft robotics has provided a novel approach to assistive devices for motor impaired individuals, offering more compliant and lightweight alternatives to traditional robotic devices. The scope of this study is to demonstrate the viability of a fabric-based soft robotic (SR) glove with bidirectional actuators in assisting chronic stroke study participants with hand impairments in performing ADLs. Methods Force and torque measurement tests were conducted to characterize the SR Glove, and hand functional tasks were given to eight chronic stroke patients to assess the efficacy of the SR Glove as an assistive device. The tasks involved object manipulation tasks that simulate ADLs, and the series of tasks was done by the participants once without assistance for baseline data, and once while using the SR Glove. A usability questionnaire was also given to each participant after the tasks were done to gain insight into how the SR Glove impacts their confidence and reliance on support while performing ADLs. Results The SR Glove improved the participants’ manipulation of objects in ADL tasks. Difference in mean scores between the unassisted and assisted conditions was significant across all participants. Additionally, the usability questionnaire showed the participants felt more confident and less reliant on support while using the SR Glove to perform ADLs than without the SR Glove. Conclusions The results from this study demonstrated that the SR Glove is a viable option to assist hand function in chronic stroke patients who suffer from hand motor impairments.

Combining soft robotics and telerehabilitation for improving motor function after stroke

“…However, traditional robots can be challenging to align with the ultra-compact multi-degree of freedom (DOF) human hand, are complex to use, and are generally expensive, thus limiting the adoption out of high-tech clinics and the usage at-home unsupervised (Langan et al, 2018). Soft robotic gloves, made of textiles and using cables (e.g., Xiloyannis et al, 2016; Ghassemi et al, 2018; Kang et al, 2019; Yurkewich et al, 2020), pneumatics (e.g., Coffey et al, 2014; Polygerinos et al, 2015; Zhou et al, 2019; Correia et al, 2020; Lai et al, 2023a, 2023b; Lim et al, 2023), or serial elastic actuators (e.g., Xu et al, 2023) as the actuation mechanism, have been presented more recently as an alternative to traditional exoskeletons (Chu and Patterson, 2018; Proulx et al, 2020; Akbari et al, 2021). They potentially allow reduced weight, lower form factor, and increased portability, improved capability to interact with real-life items during ADLs, suitability for safe and independent use at home, and generally lower costs than exoskeletons.…”