Design of an exercise glove for hand rehabilitation using spring mechanism

Hand muscles do not perform their functions because of different reasons such as disease, injury and trauma. It is implemented some treatments for the hand therapy at hospitals and rehabilitation centers. One of these is using orthotic or robotic devices for rehabilitation. One of the important issues for these devices, placed on the user's hand, is force transmitting. Design and manufacturing process of a novel exercise glove for hand rehabilitation has been presented in this study. Original component of the glove is the spring mechanism for the force transmitting. Finger exercises based on flexion and extension movement can be performed using the new glove. The spring mechanism is driven by user's muscle strength. The glove could be used for especially post-stroke rehabilitation. Besides, this glove can be integrated to other actuator systems easily, so both active and passive exercises can be performed.