Design and Control of a Hand-Assist Robot with Multiple Degrees of Freedom for Rehabilitation Therapy

This chapter focuses on a patient self-controlled rehabilitation system using our developed exoskeleton-type hand-motion-assist robot and tele-rehabilitation. The virtual reality-enhanced new hand rehabilitation support system, which we have developed for stroke patients in the acute stage, is aiming to allow such patients to conduct every day exercises by themselves without supervisors. This system features a multi-DOF motion assistance device, a virtual reality interface for patients, and a symmetrical master-slave motion assistance training strategy called ”self-motion control”, in which the stroke patients' healthy hand on the master side creates the assistance motion for the impaired hand on the slave side. Moreover, a tele-rehabilitation system consisting of a hand rehabilitation support system for the patients, an anthropomorphic robot hand for the therapist, and a remote monitoring system for diagnosing the degree of recovery is explained.