A SIMPLE ONE DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM FUNCTIONAL ROBOTIC HAND ORTHOSIS

Mário F. M. Campos and Saulo A. de P. Pinto
Laboratório de Robótica, Visão Computacional e Percepção Ativa
Departamento de Ciência da Computação
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

Abstract

Individuals who have suffered cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) usually loose the ability to manipulate objects in a reasonably efficient way. In order to be able to perform simple tasks, they must resort to specially designed passive de-vices. This paper describes the design and implementation of a one degree-of-freedom functional hand orthosis. The main objective was to develop a simple, inexpensive, adaptable device that would help in restoring the precision grip capability of individuals with SCI. Several experiments of the grasp-and-release type were conducted with different objects, and preliminary results that show and quantify the improvement in an individual's gripping abilities are presented.

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Last modified: Thu Jan 21 10:38:39 PST 1999