Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton

A significant number of stroke patients are permanently left with a hemiparetic upper limb after the poststroke six-month golden recovery period, resulting in a drastic decline in their quality of life. This study develops a novel foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton that enables patients with h...

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Main Authors: Wenyuan Chen, Guangyong Li, Ning Li, Wenxue Wang, Peng Yu, Ruiqian Wang, Xiujuan Xue, Xingang Zhao, Lianqing Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2023-01-01
Series:IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10004999/
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author Wenyuan Chen
Guangyong Li
Ning Li
Wenxue Wang
Peng Yu
Ruiqian Wang
Xiujuan Xue
Xingang Zhao
Lianqing Liu
author_facet Wenyuan Chen
Guangyong Li
Ning Li
Wenxue Wang
Peng Yu
Ruiqian Wang
Xiujuan Xue
Xingang Zhao
Lianqing Liu
author_sort Wenyuan Chen
collection DOAJ
description A significant number of stroke patients are permanently left with a hemiparetic upper limb after the poststroke six-month golden recovery period, resulting in a drastic decline in their quality of life. This study develops a novel foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton that enables patients with hemiparetic hands and forearms to restore their voluntary activities of daily living. Patients can accomplish dexterous hand/arm manipulation on their own with the assistance of a foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton by utilizing foot movements on the unaffected side as command signals. The proposed foot-controlled exoskeleton was first tested on a stroke patient with a chronic hemiparetic upper limb. The testing results showed that the forearm exoskeleton can assist the patient in achieving approximately 107° of voluntary forearm rotation with a static control error less than 1.7°, whereas the hand exoskeleton can assist the patient in realizing at least six different voluntary hand gestures with a success rate of 100%. Further experiments involving more patients demonstrated that the foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton can help patients in restoring some of the voluntary activities of daily living with their paretic upper limb, such as picking up food to eat and opening water bottles to drink, and etc. This research implies that the foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton is a viable way to restore the upper limb activities of stroke patients with chronic hemiparesis.
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issn 1534-4320
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language English
publishDate 2023-01-01
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series IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
spelling doaj-art-33de3e7dcb1141338f6afb87f9c1b35d2025-08-20T03:07:20ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1534-43201558-02102023-01-013176977810.1109/TNSRE.2022.323363110004999Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm ExoskeletonWenyuan Chen0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9466-6019Guangyong Li1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4999-5710Ning Li2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5516-7364Wenxue Wang3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9137-8302Peng Yu4Ruiqian Wang5Xiujuan Xue6Xingang Zhao7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8194-1870Lianqing Liu8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2271-5870State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USAState Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaRehabilitation Center for the Disabled, Shenyang, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, ChinaA significant number of stroke patients are permanently left with a hemiparetic upper limb after the poststroke six-month golden recovery period, resulting in a drastic decline in their quality of life. This study develops a novel foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton that enables patients with hemiparetic hands and forearms to restore their voluntary activities of daily living. Patients can accomplish dexterous hand/arm manipulation on their own with the assistance of a foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton by utilizing foot movements on the unaffected side as command signals. The proposed foot-controlled exoskeleton was first tested on a stroke patient with a chronic hemiparetic upper limb. The testing results showed that the forearm exoskeleton can assist the patient in achieving approximately 107° of voluntary forearm rotation with a static control error less than 1.7°, whereas the hand exoskeleton can assist the patient in realizing at least six different voluntary hand gestures with a success rate of 100%. Further experiments involving more patients demonstrated that the foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton can help patients in restoring some of the voluntary activities of daily living with their paretic upper limb, such as picking up food to eat and opening water bottles to drink, and etc. This research implies that the foot-controlled hand/forearm exoskeleton is a viable way to restore the upper limb activities of stroke patients with chronic hemiparesis.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10004999/Wearable foot-machine interfacerehabilitation robothand exoskeletonforearm exoskeleton
spellingShingle Wenyuan Chen
Guangyong Li
Ning Li
Wenxue Wang
Peng Yu
Ruiqian Wang
Xiujuan Xue
Xingang Zhao
Lianqing Liu
Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Wearable foot-machine interface
rehabilitation robot
hand exoskeleton
forearm exoskeleton
title Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton
title_full Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton
title_fullStr Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton
title_full_unstemmed Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton
title_short Restoring Voluntary Bimanual Activities of Patients With Chronic Hemiparesis Through a Foot-Controlled Hand/Forearm Exoskeleton
title_sort restoring voluntary bimanual activities of patients with chronic hemiparesis through a foot controlled hand forearm exoskeleton
topic Wearable foot-machine interface
rehabilitation robot
hand exoskeleton
forearm exoskeleton
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10004999/
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