Thesis

Design of the rehabilitation glove : a soft wearable robotic device for repetitive hand rehabilitation therapy after a stroke

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2015
Thesis identifier
  • T14234
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201491685
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Stroke is the major cause of disability in the world today, and it touches up to 110 000 persons every year, only in UK, and up to 70% of the survivors of a stroke suffer from a moderate to severe disabilities in their upper-limb motion control, caused by damages in the cerebral motor areas. The recovery of post-stroke impairments is a hard and long treatment, because the patient has to recover his physical strength and functionalities, but he also needs his affected neural area to reorganise, in order to make significant progresses. The rehabilitation techniques are many and all of them have their pros and cons, but the physiotherapists have more and more troubles in handling the growing number of patients. Indeed the majority of the patients suffering from a stroke are aged over 60, and the global ageing of the population implies an increase of those disabled people, creating a work load and a cost too great for the conventional rehabilitation techniques. The aim of this project is to investigate upper-limb rehabilitation techniques and in particular robot-assisted rehabilitation, to find out what could solve this major issue. The existing devices will be reviewed and robotic rehabilitation devices pointed as a solution for future post stroke recovery therapy. The concept of a soft robotic glove for hand rehabilitation, coupling a flexible structure with a cable-driven actuation will then be developed, and the methods of design of a prototype will be followed. Both the mechanical coupling between the hand and the glove, using vacuum and suctions cups, and the control interface of the prototype will be developed. Finally, despite the only partial achievement of the prototype, future prospective and use for this device will be discussed, concluding on the promising results obtained.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Yao, Wei
Resource Type
Note
  • This thesis was previously held under moratorium from 8th March 2016 until 8th March 2021.
DOI
Date Created
  • 2015
Former identifier
  • 9912480753402996

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