%0 Conference Paper %B 14th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR) %D 2015 %T EMG controlled soft robotic glove for assistance during activities of daily living %A Panagiotis Polygerinos %A Galloway, Kevin C. %A Siddharth Sanan %A Maxwell Herman %A Conor J Walsh %K Activities of Daily Living %K actuators %K assisted living %K elastomeric materials %K Electromyography %K EMG %K EMG controlled soft robotic glove %K force control %K Grasping %K gross muscle activation signals %K hand assistance %K hand closing force generation %K hand pathology %K inextensible materials %K low-level fluidic pressure controller %K medical control systems %K medical signal processing %K Muscles %K open-loop sEMG logic %K patient with muscular dystrophy %K pressure control %K pressure regulation %K Robot sensing systems %K soft actuator %K soft robotic glove %K Thumb %X

This paper presents further developments, characterization and initial evaluation of a recently developed assistive soft robotic glove for individuals with hand pathologies. The glove technology utilizes a combination of elastomeric and inextensible materials to create soft actuators that conform to the user's hand and can generate sufficient hand closing force to assist with activities of daily living. User intent (i.e. desire to close or open hand) is detected by monitoring gross muscle activation signals with surface electromyography electrodes mounted on the user's forearm. In particular, we present an open-loop sEMG logic that distinguishes muscle contractions and feeds the information to a low-level fluidic pressure controller that regulates pressure in pre-selected groups of the glove's actuators. Experiments are conducted to determine the level of assistance provided by the glove by monitoring muscle effort and mapping the pressure distribution during a simple grasping task when the glove is worn. Lastly, quantitative and qualitative results are presented using the sEMG-controlled glove on a healthy participant and on a patient with muscular dystrophy.

%B 14th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR) %C Singapore %P 55-60. [Best Paper Award] %8 11-14 Aug 2015 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICORR.2015.7281175 %R 10.1109/ICORR.2015.7281175