Design of Soft–Rigid Devices for Rehabilitative and Assistive Robotics

The innovation of rehabilitation and assistive technology nowadays is now driven by a double thrust. On one side, the average age of people is increasing as a result of the improved lifestyle in the last twenty years, which focuses on human well-being, consequently, the overall social impact of chronic diseases related to the musculoskeletal and nervous system is becoming relevant. On the other side, technology, spreading more and more now in everyday life, is acquiring an increasingly important role in preserving and ensuring a high quality of life even in the presence of temporary and/or chronic disorders. Technological advancements in the healthcare medical rehabilitative and assistive system allow people with disabilities to live a life in many cases independently. These advances, which translate into the realization of new devices and supports for the individual, can help in the autonomy of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), in communication, study, learning, and more generally, to increase the degree of self-esteem by facilitating social inclusion and participation. The aim of this thesis is to combine aspects of robotics with the themes of assistance and rehabilitation, presenting new solutions in the Human Robot Interaction (HRI) field. In this manuscript, concerning rehabilitation and assistance, two major robotics areas are investigated, i.e. the exoskeleton and the haptic fields. The upper limb plays an important role in all daily activities. This thesis presents devices for rehabilitation and assistive application to help people with upper limb impairment, especially wrist and hand functions. The charm of these technologies lies in the possibility of following a rehabilitation path from home comfort, improving the medical health system, facilitating ADLs by eliminating constraints in terms of time, physiotherapist’s strength and costs, improving the rehabilitation path process. In this context, the exoskeletons, first for the wrist, then for the hand and finally an integration of the two just mentioned, are presented in the first thesis part. A user--centered design perspective is used throughout all design and development phases of the prototypes showing the effectiveness of developing tailor-made devices specifically designed on the user’ needs. Further, by exploiting haptic for rehabilitation and assistance, portable haptic grounded devices and wearable, are reported. Also, in this case, the focus of the thesis is on the hand providing solutions that can be used to help people in recovering and performing rehabilitation from remote without the physical presence of a doctor/specialist. Moreover, with regard to the topic of assistance only, the field of robotic grippers is exploited. Advanced design and manufacturing techniques are opening up opportunities in various technological applications, including end-effector design. In this context, grasping and manipulating objects in unstructured environments by means of simple, yet versatile and robust grippers and hands, is still an open challenge. In this thesis, it is presented a methodology for designing soft-rigid grippers that exploits compliant structures and implements a new type of actuation to vary its rigidity, able of performing different manipulation tasks. Similarly, in the final part of the thesis it is presented a soft-rigid gripper that combines a compliant and safe structure with a synergy between tendon and magnetic actuation for dressing assistance, which provides various advantages and can perform various grasping and manipulation tasks.