A novel model for the material selection of smart objects for hand-rehabilitation: a case study

Home hand rehabilitation for stroke is becoming increasingly important due to logistic and financial challenges. Developing Daily-life Integrated Hand-rehabilitation Products (DIHP) aims to enable the application of at-home rehabilitation. The materials of these products are essential for their success, however, selecting materials for DIHP has not been investigated yet. Previous research on material selection showed that it is done strictly on material properties or based on a human-centered approach. Hence, in this study, we propose a hybrid model for choosing materials for DIHP. To achieve this, we first combined the findings of previous material selection processes into a comprehensive material selection model. We applied this model in a case study, in which we first selected three materials based on their properties. Following, we 3d printed a DIHP out of the chosen materials and tested the feeling of the materials with multiple expert groups. Our findings suggest that the proposed material selection method is promising and highlights that our comprehensive model provides more insights when compared to a strict material property-based selection.