Robotic glove could put control in patients' grasp

Soft, wearable robotics expert, Conor Walsh, Ph.D, and his team, are developing a glove that could help people suffering from loss of hand motor control to regain some of their independence.

The soft robotic glove is under development at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The glove being developed at the Wyss Institute could one day be an assistive device used for grasping objects, and help patients suffering from muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), incomplete spinal cord injury, or other hand impairments to regain some daily independence and control of their environment.

The Wyss Institute are taking a translational approach in their process by including the glove's potential end users in every step of testing and development. This approach ensures that technology development achieves functionality, yet still incorporates social and psychological elements of design to promote translation and seamless adoption by its intended end users.

Conor Walsh, who is a Wyss Institute core faculty member, founder of the Harvard Biodesign Lab, and assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at SEAS, said: "From the start of this project, we've focused on understanding the real–world challenges facing these patients by visiting them in their homes to perform research."

Wyss mechanical engineer, Kevin Galloway, Ph.D., said: "Ultimately, patients have to be comfortable with wearing the glove. In addition to glove function, we found that people cared about its appearance, which could have a big impact on whether or not the glove would be a welcome part of their daily routine."

Walsh's team adapted the mechanics of the glove to make it more comfortable and natural feeling to wearers. Over several iterations of design, the actuators powering the movements of the glove were made smaller and were modified to distribute forces more evenly over the wearer's fingers and thumb. The resulting soft, multi–segment actuators, which are composite tubular constructions of Kevlar fibers and silicone elastomer, support the range of motions performed by biological fingers. The glove's control system is portable, light

weight and can be worn using a waist belt or can be attached to a wheelchair.

Walsh said: "We are continuing to test the design of the soft robotic glove on patients, in relation to making it customizable for the specific pathologies of each individual and understanding what control strategies work best, but we're already seeing a lot of exciting proof–of–concept experimental results. The current goal is to refine the overall system sufficiently so we can begin a feasibility trial with multiple patients later this year."

The design of the glove has been published in Robotics and Autonomous Systems journal and the team also recently presented it at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation. This August, the team's electromyography control work will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics Research, in Singapore.