Integration of a Passive Exoskeleton and a Robotic Supernumerary Finger for Grasping Compensation in Chronic Stroke Patients: The SoftPro Wearable System

Upper-limb impairments are all-pervasive in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). As a consequence, people affected by a loss of arm function must endure severe limitations. To compensate for the lack of a functional arm and hand, we developed a wearable system that combines different assistive technologies including sensing, haptics, orthotics and robotics. The result is a device that helps lifting the forearm by means of a passive exoskeleton and improves the grasping ability of the impaired hand by employing a wearable robotic supernumerary finger. A pilot study involving 3 patients, which was conducted to test the capability of the device to assist in performing ADLs, confirmed its usefulness and serves as a first step in the investigation of novel paradigms for robotic assistance

Development of Soft sEMG Sensing Structures Using 3D-Printing Technologies

3D printing of soft EMG sensing structures enables the creation of personalized sensing structures that can be potentially integrated in prosthetic, assistive and other devices. We developed and characterized flexible carbon-black doped TPU-based sEMG sensing structures. The structures are directly 3D-printed without the need for an additional post-processing step using a low-cost, consumer grade multi-material FDM printer. A comparison between the gold standard Ag/AgCl gel electrodes and the 3D-printed EMG electrodes with a comparable contact area shows that there is no significant difference in the EMG signals’ amplitude. The sensors are capable of distinguishing a variable level of muscle activity of the biceps brachii. Furthermore, as a proof of principle, sEMG data of a 3D-printed 8-electrode band are analyzed using a patten recognition algorithm to recognize hand gestures. This work shows that 3D-printed sEMG electrodes have great potential in practical applications

A flexible, three material, 3D-printed, shear force sensor for use on finger tips

This paper shows the development and characterization of a 3D-printed flexible finger tip sensor that measures both shear and normal forces. The sensor is fabricated using three material fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D-printing. The sensing principle is based on the mechanical deformation of the finger tips caused by normal and shear-forces. Therefore, the sensor is flexible and can measure the interaction forces between the environment and the finger tips, while keeping the loss of touch sensation low. Characterization shows the sensor is capable of distinguishing between normal and a shear-force components

3D Printed Soft Robotic Actuator With Embedded Strain Sensing For Position Estimation

This work shows the development and characterization of a fully 3D printed pneumatic soft robotic actuator with embedded strain gauges to estimate the bending angle of the actuator. The actuator was printed in one go using a multi material Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) printer. By taking the difference of the reading of two integrated strain gauges, printed using carbon doped TPU, a strong linear relation (R2=0.97) between the bending angle and sensor output is achieved

Characterizing the Electrical Properties of Anisotropic, 3D-Printed Conductive Sheets

This paper introduces characterization techniques to investigate electrical properties of 3D printed conductors. It presents a physical model to describe frequency dependent electrical properties of 3D-printed conductors; the use of infrared thermography to characterize electrical anisotropy in 3D-printed sheets and the use of the voltage contrast Scanning Electron Microscopy method (VCSEM) to determine potential distributions in 3D-printed sheets. The characterization methods could enable improvement of 3D-printed transducer design and exploit electrical properties of 3D-printed conductors

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