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Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment

This study proposes a bioinspired exotendon routing configuration for a tendon-based mechanism to provide finger flexion and extension that utilizes a single motor to reduce the complexity of the system. The configuration was primarily inspired by the extrinsic muscle–tendon units of the human muscu...

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Autores principales: Abdelhafiz, Mohamed H., Andreasen Struijk, Lotte N. S., Dosen, Strahinja, Spaich, Erika G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9960426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36850871
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23042272
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author Abdelhafiz, Mohamed H.
Andreasen Struijk, Lotte N. S.
Dosen, Strahinja
Spaich, Erika G.
author_facet Abdelhafiz, Mohamed H.
Andreasen Struijk, Lotte N. S.
Dosen, Strahinja
Spaich, Erika G.
author_sort Abdelhafiz, Mohamed H.
collection PubMed
description This study proposes a bioinspired exotendon routing configuration for a tendon-based mechanism to provide finger flexion and extension that utilizes a single motor to reduce the complexity of the system. The configuration was primarily inspired by the extrinsic muscle–tendon units of the human musculoskeletal system. The function of the intrinsic muscle–tendon units was partially compensated by adding a minor modification to the configuration of the extrinsic units. The finger kinematics produced by this solution during flexion and extension were experimentally evaluated on an artificial finger and compared to that obtained using the traditional mechanism, where one exotendon was inserted at the distal phalanx. The experiments were conducted on nine healthy subjects who wore a soft exoskeleton glove equipped with the novel tendon mechanism. Contrary to the traditional approach, the proposed mechanism successfully prevented the hyperextension of the distal interphalangeal (DIP) and the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints. During flexion, the DIP joint angles produced by the novel mechanism were smaller than the angles generated by the traditional approach for the same proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint angles. This provided a flexion trajectory closer to the voluntary flexion motion and avoided straining the interphalangeal coupling between the DIP and PIP joints. Finally, the proposed solution generated similar trajectories when applied to a stiff artificial finger (simulating spasticity). The results, therefore, demonstrate that the proposed approach is indeed an effective solution for the envisioned soft hand exoskeleton system.
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spelling pubmed-99604262023-02-26 Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment Abdelhafiz, Mohamed H. Andreasen Struijk, Lotte N. S. Dosen, Strahinja Spaich, Erika G. Sensors (Basel) Article This study proposes a bioinspired exotendon routing configuration for a tendon-based mechanism to provide finger flexion and extension that utilizes a single motor to reduce the complexity of the system. The configuration was primarily inspired by the extrinsic muscle–tendon units of the human musculoskeletal system. The function of the intrinsic muscle–tendon units was partially compensated by adding a minor modification to the configuration of the extrinsic units. The finger kinematics produced by this solution during flexion and extension were experimentally evaluated on an artificial finger and compared to that obtained using the traditional mechanism, where one exotendon was inserted at the distal phalanx. The experiments were conducted on nine healthy subjects who wore a soft exoskeleton glove equipped with the novel tendon mechanism. Contrary to the traditional approach, the proposed mechanism successfully prevented the hyperextension of the distal interphalangeal (DIP) and the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints. During flexion, the DIP joint angles produced by the novel mechanism were smaller than the angles generated by the traditional approach for the same proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint angles. This provided a flexion trajectory closer to the voluntary flexion motion and avoided straining the interphalangeal coupling between the DIP and PIP joints. Finally, the proposed solution generated similar trajectories when applied to a stiff artificial finger (simulating spasticity). The results, therefore, demonstrate that the proposed approach is indeed an effective solution for the envisioned soft hand exoskeleton system. MDPI 2023-02-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9960426/ /pubmed/36850871 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23042272 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Abdelhafiz, Mohamed H.
Andreasen Struijk, Lotte N. S.
Dosen, Strahinja
Spaich, Erika G.
Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment
title Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment
title_full Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment
title_fullStr Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment
title_full_unstemmed Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment
title_short Biomimetic Tendon-Based Mechanism for Finger Flexion and Extension in a Soft Hand Exoskeleton: Design and Experimental Assessment
title_sort biomimetic tendon-based mechanism for finger flexion and extension in a soft hand exoskeleton: design and experimental assessment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9960426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36850871
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23042272
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