RoboGlove: Design of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Glove with Differential Mechanisms

Abstract

Stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI) are two main causes of human upper-limb movement impairments. In this paper, the design of a soft robotic glove with tendon actuation for rehabilitation purposes of the human hand is presented. This robotic glove called KNTU RoboGlove is designed based on differential mechanisms. To help patients, the glove makes grasping objects with different geometries be possible using a single DC motor. To this end, the differential mechanisms are first presented, which are used in two parts of the system. The actuation unit actuates all fingers with a motor, while uses differential gears that can produce the flexion or extension motions without facing singularities. Finally, the functionality of RoboGlove is evaluated in performing two different tasks. First one is grasping a cylindrical object, while the second consists of grasping an irregular-shaped object. Obtained results reveal the merits of the proposed robotic glove.