Soft rehabilitation gloves have become popular tools for helping patients with hand function-related disabilities recover finger movement. These gloves often use soft pneumatic actuators that employ air pressure to generate movements. Despite significant design improvements in recent years, many available soft actuators have drawbacks in achieving bidirectional motion typical of finger joints—such soft actuators facilitate finger bending (or flexion) but not finger straightening (or extension).
A group of biomedical researchers from Chiba University successfully overcame this design limitation by developing a novel foldable pouch actuator (FPA) that seamlessly integrated with existing soft actuators in the rehabilitation gloves. Professor Wenwei Yu from the Center for Frontier Medical Engineering, Chiba University, Japan, led the research group that accomplished this feat. The research group also included Dr.
Shota Kokubu and Mr. Pablo E. Tortós Vinocour from the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Chiba University, Japan.
They published their findings in IEEE Access on 30 April 2024. When asked about the motivation for the study, Prof. Yu explains, "Despite having partial hand function, many older people with hand function-related disabilities whom I've come across require the full attention of the healthcare staff.
I wondered if an efficient and safe assistive device could bolster their hand function for daily activities, thus helping them enjoy their life bette.