Development of A Customized Rehabilitation Device Using Additive Manufacturing

Individuals who suffer from stroke need rehabilitation to regain the ability to perform activities of daily living independently. Nowadays robotic devices are used in high-intensity rehabilitation processes to recover motor functions, e.g., after stroke. Since every affected person is an individual and has individual physiological prerequisites, but also individual needs regarding training, the robotic devices often don’t provide a universal fit. In this respect, 3D-printing and additive fabrication can present a solution to lightweight, sustainable and individualized production of such devices. The purpose of this work is to develop a 3D-printing design strategy for a lightweight and user-friendly hand rehabilitation device. For post-stroke people, extending the fingers is much harder than flexing them, therefore, the proposed device is used to actively extend the fingers. The target is to design a device that uses only one actuator to extend the four fingers (Index, Middle, Ring, Little) together at once. Keywords: Hand rehabilitation devices, 3D-printing, Mechanical design, Multi-material 3D-printing