Session: 05-12-01: Robotics, Rehabilitation - I

Paper Number: 92663

92663 - Investigating the Design of a Soft Robot for Finger Rehabilitation 

The 2018 US National Health Interview Survey found that 61 million adults aged 18 and over in the United States have disabilities. Among them, a common disability is motor impairment in the hands and fingers which can be caused by arthritis, Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson’s Disease, stroke or injuries from regular everyday activities or accidents. People who have reduced finger functionalities may feel the loss of their independence as they have difficulties performing daily tasks. Hence, physical rehabilitation is often prescribed during the recovery process for a patient to regain their mobility.  

 

Physical rehabilitation through repetitive finger movements allows the brain to establish new connections among undamaged nerve cells and remap motor function. Often time, occupational and physical therapists assist and monitor these exercises, but the cost and time required to be invested into such therapy may deter many patients from continuing their long journey to recovery. Therefore, robotic devices that assist and monitor these repetitive movements at a patient’s home could be encouraging to the patient to continue their therapy for recovery.  

There are several finger rehabilitation robots available in the market. Some are made with rigid, stiff materials with limited flexibility and may be uncomfortable for patients to wear for an extended amount of time. Some recently developed rehabilitation robots are made with flexible materials with similar qualities to those found in living organisms, which are characterized as “soft robots.” Soft robots are generally made with polymers and actuated by pressurized gas inside of the polymer structure. Soft robots can be proved to have higher pliability, versatility, and increased comfort when the device conforms to the contours of the human body while utilizing materials such as fluids, gels, and soft polymers. Potentially, soft robots could provide more user-friendly experience for patients seeking rehabilitation. In addition, soft robots may be lighter and less costly to fabricate, improving portability and accessibility. With these potential benefits in mind, in this paper, a wearable soft robot to assist finger rehabilitation will be presented.   

 

Unlike most other soft robots with external tubes and pipes for fluid flows, our proposed soft robot is actuated by heat. Our soft robot is designed by sealing a phase changing material (PCM) inside of several microchannels made by polymer structure. When heat is applied, the PCM begins to change phase and the pressure inside the sealed microchannels increases and expands the polymer structure to create a movement of the soft robot. In this study, we focus on constructing simulation models using ANSYS Fluent to examine the parameters relevant to our intended design. We also present a prototype to be tested in the future work.  

Presenting Author: Yen-Lin Han Seattle University

Presenting Author Biography: Yen-Lin Han is an Associate Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering and the Bannan Chair of Engineering at Seattle University. Dr. Han received her BS degree in Material Science and Engineering from National Tsing-Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, her MS degree in Electrical Engineering and her PhD degree in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California. Her research interests include micro-scale molecular gas dynamics, micro fluidics, and heat transfer applications in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and medical devices as well as autonomous vehicles and robotics. She is passionate about Engineering Education and experienced in pedagogical research. She is currently the Co- PI of the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments grant awarded to the Mechanical Engineering department at Seattle University to study how to foster students' engineering identity with the long-term goal of increasing the representation of women and minority in the field of engineering.

Authors:

Nina Glasgo Seattle University
Mitchell Soohoo Seattle University
Yen-Lin Han Seattle University