Mechanical design of a magnetic resonance compatible device used for finger rehabilitation and brain imagine studying

This paper presents the design, fabricate and evaluation of a Magnetic Resonance compatible finger rehabilitation device, which could not only be used as a finger rehabilitation training tool after stroke, but also to study the brain´s recovery process during the rehabilitation therapy (ReT). The mechanics of this device are designed to be adjustable to different persons´ finger phalanges, and also the gap between one finger to another can be easily changed. By using an ultrasonic motor as its actuator, the device has been designed to be portable, with a high torque output. In addition, the mechanical has been developed into two working models (passive and active) in order to overcome the intrinsic shortage of non-back drivability in ultrasonic motor. The result system enables the client to do extension and flexion rehabilitation exercises in two degrees of freedom (DOF) for each finger as well as one DOF motion on the thumb. Finally, experiment has been carried out to evaluate the performance of the device.