A Novel Robotic Exoskeleton for Finger Rehabilitation: Kinematics Analysis

A novel robotic exoskeleton for fingers rehabilitation is developed, which is driven by linear motors through Bowden cables. For each finger, in addition to three links acting as phalanxes, two more links acting as knuckles are also implemented. Links are connected through passive joints, by which translational and rotary movements can be realized simultaneously. Either flexion or extension motion is accomplished by one cable of adequate stiffness. This exoskeleton possesses good adaptability to finger length of different subjects and length variations during movement. The exoskeleton's kinematics model is built by the statistics method, and piecewise polynomial functions (PPF) are chosen to describe the relationship between motor displacement and joint variables. Finally, the relationship between motor displacement and the finger's total bending angle is obtained, which can be used for rehabilitation trajectory planning. Experimental results show that this exoskeleton achieves nearly the maximum finger bending angle of a healthy adult person, with the maximum driving force of 68.6 N.