Design of Hand Motion Assist Robot for Rehabilitation Physiotherapy

Abstract

This paper deals about developing a microcontroller based two-axis robot for human hand physiotherapy for the treatment of paralyzed patients. The interactive two-axis motion robot is designed to fit around patient’s arm and work with the patient to reestablish movements of hand by gently moving it in desired direction. The robot moves the patients hand up and down, left and right using servo motor interfaced with it. The motor is controlled by switching ON/OFF the stator winding. The microcontroller generates the switching pulses of the motor; the angular distance and movements are programmable through keys. The robot actively moves the non-responsive body parts allowing it to be a useful tool in all steps of rehabilitation. Note to Practitioners-Compared with cable-driven humanoid arm, a cable less robot is more accurate because a cable driven robot has some drawbacks due to the mismatch of connections. If the connections are mishandled, there is a chance to occur any severe damages. The main drawback is more expensive, very difficult to maintain and clean. This drawback can be rectified by the proposed method. The main feature of this robot is its mobility function.