To improve and gain backhand motor functions from neurological conditions, you need to engage in repetitive hand exercises. This repetitive practice is a form of rehabilitation that focuses on individual movements that help to improve strength, hand accuracy, and range of motion. 

To guide you through these exercises, you should hire a physical therapist. However, you also need a portable device to help you perform these exercises on your own. With power robotic gloves, you can increase accessibility and produce fast and better results while decreasing the friction during these therapy sessions. 

What is a robotic glove?

Rehab robotic gloves are designed with soft pressurizable elastomeric actuators that help in supporting the flexion and extension of the finger. This design gives room for a range of motion and the degree of freedom controlled using a single fluid pressurization input. 

They are designed with elastomer materials with fiber reinforcement and soft fabrics in a way that prioritizes your comfort. They are also portable, inexpensive, and safe as a result of a single hydraulic actuation mechanism and low component cost. 

Factors to consider when designing robotic gloves

You should put the weight and comfort of the system into consideration when you want to design your power robotic gloves. The goal is to ensure that the device, when mounted on your hand, does not weigh more than 0.5kg. If you want to add other options to help you actuate, power, and control, it must not exceed 3kg. This extra package can also be placed on a tabletop or attached to a wheelchair. You should also design the size of the hand device to easily fit into different hand sizes so that you can put it on and remove it when necessary. 

The force and motion requirements 

Power robotic gloves are designed to generate enough force that not only supports hand flexion and movement but also allows the natural range of motion and extension of the fingers comfortably. A hand study was conducted using the hands of a healthy person to establish the benchmark on the range of motion of these robotic gloves. To determine the sum of joint angles within the range of motion, an electromagnet tracking sensor system was used. Aside from this range of motion, several studies prove that the grip of a healthy person is a maximum of 300 to 450 N in both males and females, respectively. 

Conclusion 

So much work still needs to be done to help improve the result of these rehab robotic gloves. This will help achieve the goal of rehabilitating more hand pathologies, especially in cases where the fingers are stiff.