Hand impairment following neurological disorders substantially limits independence in activities of daily living, motivating the development of effective assistive and rehabilitation strategies. Soft robotic gloves have attracted growing interest in this context, yet persistent challenges in customization, ergonomic fit, and flexion-extension actuation constrain their clinical utility. Here, we present a dual-action fabric-based soft robotic glove incorporating customized actuators aligned with individual finger joints. The glove comprises five independently controlled dual-action actuators supporting finger flexion and extension, together with a dedicated thumb abduction actuator. Leveraging computer numerical control heat sealing technology, we fabricated symmetrical-chamber actuators that adopt a concave outer surface upon inflation, thereby maximizing finger contact area and improving comfort. Systematic characterization confirmed that the actuators generate sufficient joint moment and fingertip force for ADL-relevant tasks, and that the complete glove system produces adequate grasping force for common household objects. A preliminary study with ten healthy subjects demonstrated that active glove assistance significantly reduces forearm muscle activity during object manipulation. A pilot feasibility study with three individuals with cervical spinal cord injury across seven functional tasks indicated that glove assistance promotes more natural grasp patterns and reduces reliance on tenodesis grasp, although at the cost of increased task completion time attributable to the current actuation interface. This customizable, ergonomic design represents a practical step toward personalized hand rehabilitation and assistive robotics.
翻译:神经系统疾病导致的手部功能障碍严重限制了患者日常生活活动的独立性,这推动了有效辅助与康复策略的发展。在此背景下,软体康复手套引起了越来越多的关注,然而在个性化定制、人体工学适配及屈伸驱动等方面仍存在持续挑战,制约了其临床应用。本文提出一种基于织物的双作用软体康复手套,其集成了与各手指关节对齐的定制化致动器。该手套包含五个独立控制的用于手指屈伸的双作用致动器,以及一个专用的拇指外展致动器。借助计算机数控热封技术,我们制造了对称腔室致动器,该致动器在充气后形成凹形外表面,从而最大化手指接触面积并提升舒适度。系统特性分析证实,致动器能产生日常生活活动所需的关节力矩与指尖力,且完整手套系统对常见家居物体具有充足的抓握力。针对十名健康受试者的初步研究表明,主动手套辅助可显著降低物体操控过程中的前臂肌肉活动。对三名颈脊髓损伤患者在七项功能性任务中的可行性初步试验显示,手套辅助有助于形成更自然的抓握模式并减少对腱固定抓握的依赖,但当前驱动接口导致任务完成时间增加。这种可定制的人体工学设计为个性化手部康复与辅助机器人技术迈出了实用化的一步。