An EMG-controlled exoskeleton for hand rehabilitation

Abstract

The principal goal of this work is the development, testing and experimentation of a device for the hand rehabilitation. The system we designed is intended for people who have partially lost the ability to control correctly the hand musculature, for example after a stroke or a spinal cord injure. Based on EMG signals the system can "understand" the subject volition to move the hand and thanks to its actuators can help the fingers movement in order to perform the task. In this paper we describe the device and discuss the first results conducted on a healthy volunteer.