Design and Characterization of a High-performance Wearable Robot Using Symmetric Conjugate Surface Joints

Hand impairments after stroke of a person can result in losing his independence and quality of life. Hand exoskeletons are widely used for hand rehabilitation and assist in grasping tasks in people’s daily life. Unfortunately, current hand exoskeletons remain challenges in user-friendly design, portable for daily use, and dexterity for different tasks. Here, we report a wearable hand exoskeleton that incorporates key biomimetic properties of human hand. The exoskeleton contains a series of symmetric conjugate surface joints. The hand exoskeleton proposed here achieves accurate biomimetic performance in the execution of finger natural grasping. Thanks to the conjugate surface joints, the finger exoskeleton is capable of tracking specific trajectories with a simple structure comparing with the traditional n-bar linkage exoskeletons. Experimental results confirm that the exoskeleton covers the range of fingertip forces required to assist users in daily grasping activities.