CAREER: Soft Robotics for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation

职业：上肢康复软机器人

• 批准号: 1454472
• 负责人: Conor Walsh
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-01 至 2020-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1454472&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Soft; Robotics; Upper; Extremity

CAREER: Soft Robotics for Upper Extremity RehabilitationIn terms of upper extremity disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities 2010 report found that 6.7 million people reported difficulty grasping objects like a glass or pencil. These disabilities are a result of a wide variety of conditions (e.g. traumatic injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, burns and arthritis) and in nearly all cases rehabilitation therapy is desirable in order to improve motor function. This CAREER Award proposes to develop a soft wearable robot that can be used for hand rehabilitation. Compared to conventional therapy, this technology will enable more controlled and automated therapy by allowing precise control over the motions and forces that are applied to the fingers and thumb. The use of soft robotics offers advantages over traditional robotics and this work focuses on the development of a soft wearable actuated glove and embedded sensor system, which addresses some of the known challenges in implementing such a system with traditional rigid robotic components (i.e. alignment, weight). Additionally, the sensors embedded in the device will enable control over the assistance applied to the wearer and additionally, monitoring of the activities for the therapist. Present occupational and therapy is inherently expensive and the dosage (or number of visits) for patients is limited. With effective wearable robotic systems that can be used in the clinic and home, more frequent but shorter and more focused therapy may increase the speed of patient recovery and positively impact the productivity of therapists.This CAREER Award proposes to shift the paradigm of rehabilitation from one where the therapist manipulates the fingers and thumb through some range of motion, to one where a lightweight, comfortable and soft robotic glove can provide high dose rehabilitation in either a continuous passive motion mode or in a functional assistance mode. This will be achieved through new soft actuators with integrated sensors that can comfortably apply forces to the wearer and integrated functional prototypes that will be evaluated on patients in collaboration with clinical partners. This work will advance soft actuator designs that are mechanically programmed to match the complex motions of the human fingers and thumb. This will be achieved by creating anisotropy in the bulk material properties enabling combinations of contraction, extension, bending and twisting to be achieved. These actuators are of interest to the community because they are lightweight, inexpensive, and capable of complex functionality. Low-level closed-loop controllers will be implemented on individual actuators to control their position and the force they apply and in addition different control strategies for intuitive human-robot interaction will be explored. Patients and therapists will be involved at all stages of the project and pilot studies on patients will be performed to demonstrate the potential of this technology.

职业：上肢康复的软机器人技术在上肢障碍的术语中，美国残疾人2010年的报告发现，有670万人报告了难以抓住玻璃或铅笔等物体。这些残疾是由于多种疾病（例如创伤性损伤，中风，脑瘫，烧伤和关节炎）的结果，几乎所有情况下都需要康复治疗以改善运动功能。该职业奖建议开发可用于手工康复的柔软可穿戴机器人。与常规疗法相比，该技术将通过允许对应用于手指和拇指的动作和力进行精确控制，从而实现更具控制和自动化的治疗。软机器人技术的使用提供了比传统机器人技术的优势，这项工作着重于柔软可穿戴的手套和嵌入式传感器系统的开发，该系统解决了通过传统的刚性机器人组件（即对齐，重量）实施这种系统的一些已知挑战。此外，设备中嵌入的传感器将能够控制对佩戴者应用的援助，并在治疗师那里监视活动。目前的职业和治疗本质上是昂贵的，患者的剂量（或就诊数）受到限制。借助可以在诊所和家中使用的有效可穿戴机器人系统，更频繁但更短，更集中的治疗可能会增加患者的恢复速度，并积极影响治疗师的生产力。该职业奖提议将康复范式转移到康复范式中，从而将手指和柔和的动作范围换成一定范围的动作，而舒适的范围既舒适又能舒适，并且可以舒适地掌握，并且既舒适又有能力的范围。连续的被动运动模式或功能援助模式。这将通过具有集成传感器的新的软执行器来实现，这些传感器可以舒适地向佩戴者和综合功能原型施加力，并将与临床合作伙伴合作对患者进行评估。这项工作将推进经过机械编程的软执行器设计，以匹配人的手指和拇指的复杂运动。这将通过在散装物质特性中创建各向异性，从而实现收缩，延伸，弯曲和扭曲的组合。这些执行者对社区感兴趣，因为它们轻巧，便宜且能够具有复杂的功能。将在单个执行器上实施低级闭环控制器，以控制其位置及其施加的力量，此外，还将探讨直观的人类机器人相互作用的不同控制策略。患者和治疗师将参与该项目的各个阶段，将对患者进行试点研究，以证明这项技术的潜力。