Fuzzy Logic Control for a Soft Exoskeleton Glove Using a Motor-Tendon Actuator

A hand is one of the essential limbs on the human body that is used for daily activities. The aim of this research is to develop a soft exoskeleton hand to assist people with hand deterioration. The developed exo-glove is made of low-cost RTV (room-temperature vulcanizing) silicone rubber with a motor-tendon actuation system that produces the flexion and extension motion. Here, the actuator converts rotation motion into linear motion from DC motor, while a potentiometer sensor is utilized to measure the rotation angle on the actuator system, in which fuzzy logic control (FLC) is employed for controlling the motion of the proposed motor-tendon actuator. To validate the function and mechanism of the developed soft exoskeleton glove, testing was conducted towards the FLC performance on the healthy human hand for various object grasping tests. Based on the test results, this study shows that the soft glove can be implemented on the human hand as an assistive device.