Design of an Exoskeleton for Hand Rehabilitation

An Exoskeleton is a device used to assist a person with disabilities to perform routine tasks in daily life. In the present work, an exoskeleton is designed in the laboratory using an in-house facility of 3D printing for a prosthetic hand that helps an amputee with hand loss and a person having a disability in moving palm and fingers. In the designed prototype, an EMG muscle sensor is used to acquire the signals from the muscles of the hand and convert them into voltages. These low-level voltages are then fed to a signal conditioning circuit and subsequently to the microcontroller. The microcontroller is programmed in such a way that servo motors rotate according to the voltages received from these sensors. In this way, movements of the fingers are directed by servo motors which rotate according to muscle activities, thereby enabling a person to perform routine tasks very effectively.