Designing a sensorized glove for-post stroke rehabilitation

Every year more than 700,000 individuals suffer a stroke in the US alone. Approximately 60% of the individuals who survive a stroke are left with long-term impairment of the arm, which causes significant functional limitations and has a profound impact on the ability of individuals to perform activities of daily living such as eating, grooming, and dressing. The rehabilitation of stroke survivors is largely focused on recovering the ability of performing upper extremity motor tasks. The recovery of hand functions is of paramount importance. Recent research has shown that significant motor gains can be achieved via repetition of movements such as reaching, grasping, and manipulating objects. Motivated by the above-summarized considerations, a number of researchers and clinicians have turned their attention to robotics as a means to achieve a large number of repetitions of movements relevant to rehabilitation. In previous work, we reported results from a sensorized glove designed to track movements of the hand in subjects with intact hand functions. In this paper, we present our work toward redesigning such sensorized glove to make it fully suitable for implementing rehabilitation protocols in individuals post stroke. We combined the glove technology with a robotic system (Armeo, Hocoma AG) for upper extremity rehabilitation. Patients post stroke were interviewed to gather data concerning usability of the original design of the glove and improve its wearability. Major problems were identified in donning and doffing the glove. Furthermore, patients reported altered sensation and excessive perspiration when wearing the glove. On the basis of these considerations, we modified the design of the glove by removing the fabric on the palmar side of the hand, adding clip components around the digits to avoid migration of the glove, and redesigning the mask utilized to print the sensing elements (made using a conductive elastomer) on the dorsal side of the glove. Preliminary results suggest that the design approach we adopted is improves the usability of the glove and provides good tracking of hand movements.