Thumb Stabilization and Assistance in a Robotic Hand Orthosis for Post-Stroke Hemiparesis
Ava Chen, Lauren Winterbottom, Sangwoo Park, Jingxi Xu, Dawn Nilsen, Joel Stein, Matei T. Ciocarlie
Abstract
We propose a dual-cable method of stabilizing the thumb in the context of a hand orthosis designed for individuals with upper extremity hemiparesis after stroke. This cable network adds opposition/reposition capabilities to the thumb, and increases the likelihood of forming a hand pose that can successfully manipulate objects. In addition to a <i>passive-thumb version</i> (where both cables are of fixed length), our approach also allows for a single-actuator <i>active-thumb version</i> (where the extension cable is actuated while the abductor remains passive), which allows a range of motion intended to facilitate creating and maintaining grasps. We performed experiments with five chronic stroke survivors consisting of unimanual resistive-pull tasks and bimanual twisting tasks with simulated real-world objects; these explored the effects of thumb assistance on grasp stability and functional range of motion. Our results show that both active- and passive-thumb versions achieved similar performance in terms of improving grasp force generation over a no-device baseline, but active thumb stabilization enabled users to maintain grasps for longer durations.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2022_thumbstabilizati,
title = {Thumb Stabilization and Assistance in a Robotic Hand Orthosis for Post-Stroke Hemiparesis},
author = {Ava Chen and Lauren Winterbottom and Sangwoo Park and Jingxi Xu and Dawn Nilsen and Joel Stein and Matei T. Ciocarlie},
booktitle = {RA-L 2022},
year = {2022}
}