Feasibility of a Customised Handgrip for a Rehabilitation Robot to Meet Specific Needs.

Abstract

Stroke is a common healthcare problem, leading to disability and significantly impacting individuals' quality of life. A customised device was suggested to be used for roboticassisted therapy to meet different stroke survivors' needs. However, most existing upper limb rehabilitation robots only offer a generic handgrip, which fails to meet the various needs of stroke survivors with different spastic patterns and levels of upper limb weakness. This study investigates the technical and clinical feasibility of customised handgrips to meet stroke survivors' needs through an online questionnaire with 25 therapists and parametric handgrip designs. One wrist support and two different handgrips were designed, and their size (e.g., length and width) can be adapted based on the individual anthropology data. By using the additive manufacturing method, the manufacturing cost of bespoke handgrip is reduced by up to 15 %. Additionally, more than 90 % of professionals $(\mathrm{n}=23)$ stated the positive impact of customised handgrip on rehabilitation outcomes and $72 \%(\mathrm{n}=18)$ would like to use it with stroke survivors due to its high accessibility and variability. The results indicate that a customised handgrip has the potential to benefit the stroke rehabilitation from both technical and clinical perspectives.