On the Development of Adaptive, Tendon-Driven, Wearable Exo-Gloves for Grasping Capabilities Enhancement

Abstract

Soft, underactuated, and compliant robotic exo-gloves have received an increased interest over the last decade. Possible applications of these systems range from augmenting the capabilities of healthy individuals to restoring the mobility of people that suffer from paralysis or stroke. Despite the significant progress in the field, most existing solutions are still heavy and expensive, they require an external power source to operate, and they are not wearable. In this letter, we focus on the development of adaptive (underactuated and compliant), tendon-driven, wearable exo-gloves and we propose two compact, affordable, and lightweight assistive devices that provide grasping capabilities enhancement to the user. The devices are experimentally tested and their efficiency is validated using three different types of tests: First, grasping tests that involve different everyday objects, second, force exertion capability tests that assess the fingertip forces that can be exerted while using the exo-gloves, and third, motion tracking experiments focusing on the finger bending profile. The devices are able to significantly enhance the grasping capabilities of their user with a weight of 335 g and a cost of $92 for the body powered version and a weight of 562 g and a cost of $369 for the motorized exo-glove version.