Design of a low-cost instrumented glove for hand rehabilitation monitoring system

Hand paralysis is typical disabilities resulting from stroke. Rehabilitation assists stroke survivors to gaining back to their normal life and accomplishing the best level of independence. Repetitive practice is imperative to improve grasping strength and retrain the brain motor skills. Thus, this paper proposes an instrumented glove utilizing flex sensors and force resistive sensors for post-stroke hand rehabilitation system. The flex sensors are used to measure flexion/extension of each finger, while force sensitive resistor (FSR) sensors is attached on each finger tips to measure the forces applied at the fingertips when an object is grasped. Analogue signals from the sensors are conveyed to PIC16F877A microcontrollers for data processing then transferred to a personal computer for monitoring and analysis process. The results are then documented for the purpose of post-processing and progressive status tracking. Preliminary experimental results involving squeezing a rubber ball shows the usefulness of the developed glove by demonstrating the relation of fingers flexion/extension with forces applied on each fingertip.