Three-digit grasp haptic device with variable contact stiffness for rehabilitation and human grasping studies

Author

Altobelli, A. ; Bianchi, Matteo ; Serio, Alessandro ; Baud-Bovy, G. ; Gabiccini, M. ; Bicchi, A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Adv. Robot., Ist. Italiano di Tecnol., Genoa, Italy

fYear

2014

fDate

16-19 June 2014

Firstpage

346

Lastpage

350

Abstract

This paper describes an haptic system designed to vary the stiffness of three contact points in an independent and controllable fashion, by suitably regulating the inner pressure of three pneumatic tactile displays. At the same time, the contact forces exerted by the user are measured by six degree-of-freedom force sensors placed under each finger. This device might be profitably used in hand rehabilitation and human grasping studies. We report and discuss preliminary results on device validation as well as some illustrative measurement examples.

Keywords

dexterous manipulators; force sensors; haptic interfaces; medical robotics; patient rehabilitation; contact points; hand rehabilitation; human grasping; pneumatic tactile displays; six degree-of-freedom force sensors; three-digit grasp haptic device; variable contact stiffness; Force; Force measurement; Haptic interfaces; Indexes; Robots; Sensors; Thumb; Grasping; Hand Rehabilitation; Haptic Systems; Variable Stiffness;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Control and Automation (MED), 2014 22nd Mediterranean Conference of

Conference_Location

Palermo

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-5900-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MED.2014.6961395

Filename

6961395