Development of hand rehabilitation assist device capable of repetitive facilitative exercise

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K12774
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90150:Medical assistive technology-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology
• Principal Investigator: Aodai Toshiyuki 東京都立産業技術高等専門学校, ものづくり工学科, 准教授 (40571849)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: リハビリテーション / リンク機構 / 手指運動 / 手首運動 / 促通反復療法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To realize a hand rehabilitation support device that can realize the repetitive facilitative exercise therapy in the hand, TPU was used as the material for the attachment part of the thumb movement mechanism, and elastic deformation was utilized to satisfy the range of thumb movement. In addition, two parallel link mechanisms were connected in series as a wrist motion mechanism, and each middle node was integrated to improve the motion stability. Control experiments were conducted using the relationship between the modeled motor rotation angle and joint torque, and the results were equivalent to those obtained when the robot was not worn. In addition, high discriminative accuracy was obtained by machine learning by using EMG signals to estimate movement and by examining the preprocessing of features by EMG signals to generate driving trigger signals.

Free Research Field

生体医工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

複雑な動作と広い可動範囲を有する拇指の運動アシストを実現する方法として，単一アクチュエータと協調型リンク機構，機構固定部の工夫を組み合わせた例はなく，独創的である．また，機構内に指を組み込んだことによる指関節に生じるトルクを従来方法で導出することが容易となり，導出方法や結果は学術的に意義があると言える．従来までの促通反復療法のアシスト装置と異なり，全ての指を同時に行えることから社会的意義もあると言える．また，筋電位による識別精度向上に対して，従来研究に比べて簡易で容易であり，生体情報に基づいた前処理方法を行うことで精度向上が図れたことは意義がある．