Portable 3D-printed hand orthosis with spatial stiffness distribution personalized for assisting grasping in daily living.

ABSTRACT: Stroke survivors having limited finger coordination require an active hand orthosis to assist them with grasping tasks for daily activities. The orthosis should be portable for constant use; however, portability imposes constraints on the number, size, and weight of the actuators, which increase the difficulty of the design process. Therefore, a tradeoff exists between portability and the assistive force. In this study, a personalized spatial stiffness distribution design is presented for a portable and strengthful hand orthosis. The spatial stiffness distribution of the orthosis was optimized based on measurements of individual hand parameters to satisfy the functional requirements of achieving sufficient grip aperture in the pre-grasping phase and minimal assistive force in the grasping

SUBMITTER: Park CB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9932545 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature