The 11th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI 2014)

Nov. 12-15, 2014 at Double Tree Hotel by Hilton, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Design of Exoskeleton Robotic Hand/Arm System for

Upper Limbs Rehabilitation Considering Mobility and Portability
Yong-Kwun Lee
Department of Biorobotics, Kyushu Sangyo University, Fukuoka, 813-8503, Japan
(Tel : +81-92-673-5614; E-mail: lee@ip.kyusan-u.ac.jp)

Abstract – In this paper, a light wearable robotic
hand/arm system is proposed for patients to whom hand or
arm rehabilitation training is conducive for the recovery. It
is lighter and more comfortable to get a patient equipped
with than currently available aids so that one can make a
move more easily. The elbow module is consists of a joint,
exoskeleton supporting frames and a hydro-pneumatic
actuating module, which is including a moving cylinder,
micro compressor and controller. Lightweight and
high-powered linear actuators (stroke 25mm, thrust 3kg)
are utilized for hand movement. Torsion spring I mounted
on the each finger joints in order to support the frames and
give assisting force. Each finger is driven by steel wire
tendon supported by lightweight pulleys to keep the wire
on its own path.
Therefore, a lightweight, simple, portable and wearable
hand/arm robot is proposed to train normal finger
movement and give more control freedom in strength and
speed.
The paper is organized in the following order: Chapter2
is referring to Mechanism design of the hand/arm robot
including control system of hand robot. The robot's
performance is evaluated in Chapter3 and brief conclusion
is made in Chapter4.
2. Design of a Robotic Hand/Arm
2.1 Mechanical Design of Robot Hand/Arm

Keywords – Power Assist Exoskeleton Robot, Upper Limbs

Rehabilitation, Micro EHA, Robotic Hand/Arm

1. Introduction
In general, hand and arm movement disorders can be
caused by stroke, fractures, ligament damage or loss of
strength due to aging, and these problems in the world's
population ageing era have been raised up as one of the
challenging issues [1]. Stroke is a cerebrovascular disease
accompanying functional paralysis in the muscle contraction
and expansion, but stroke patients can be improved by (a) Hand
rehabilitation training [2, 3]. To increase the effectiveness of
rehabilitation training, continuous and repeated movement
training with a physiotherapist is needed, but, recently the
studies about aid robots replacing physiotherapists have
been broadly studied [4-7]. In particular, the upper limb
rehabilitation training robots have been drawing
community's more interest. However, most of them are too
large and heavy for patients to easily wear and cannot train
thumb and other four fingers respectively and at the same
time, have limitations such as performing normal finger
movement in daily life [8-9]. For example, RUPERT is one
of upper limb rehabilitation training robots. But it has same
problems in inappropriateness for finger training as well as
bulkiness as mentioned earlier Japanese Gifu University has
developed a sixteen DOF (degree-of-freedom) robot that is
for hand rehabilitation, moving each joint respectively at the
same time. It can perform and train normal movements of
each finger in daily life [10]. However, it is likewise too (b) Arm
large and complicated to ware and use because actuators and
sensors are needed in each joint and the length of joints is Fig.1 Wearable robots hand/arm for upper-limb
adjusted to that of human. rehabilitation

978-1-4799-5333-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 540

 In the Fig. 1(a), 2(a), the light robot aid-robot with three accumulator to act as a tank. Fig. 4 shows the Micro EHA
fingers of 9 DOF is shown and it is much easier to ware it system developed for the robot arm.
over a human hand. Its weight is only 300 gram including
the power supply. A lightweight and high-powered
actuator (stroke 25mm, thrust 3Kg) is mounted and torsion
springs in each joint of the finger were used to bring faster
finger recovery.

Each finger is driven by 0.5mm steel wire tendon

supported by lightweight pulley to prevent wire's breaking
away and a linear actuator. The arm in Fig. 1(b), 2(b) is the
arm module using a micro hydro pneumatic cylinder, and
its stroke and thrust length is designed to be long and Fig.3 Concept of hydraulic circuit for Micro-EHA system
strong enough to cover the range of motion and reactive
force.

(a) Hand
Fig.4 Micro-EHA system

2.3 Torque Analysis of a Robot Hand/Arm

(b) Arm

Fig.2 Design of wearable robot hand/arm for upper-limb

rehabilitation

2.2 Hydraulic System for Actuating Robot Arm

Hydro pneumatic driving Module consists of a cylinder

and a controller module. The preexisting Electro
Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA) system has been recently
used in various applications. It adopts the highly integrated
actuator that consists of various valves, oil tanks,
accumulators and integrated manifolds [11-13]. But the on
the other hand, Micro-EHA system proposed in this paper
integrated hydro pneumatic driving units and control
modules into one package, and removed various
cumbersome valves and manifolds and cylinders.
Therefore, it can decouple a power source from the
actuator and enable to be controlled remotely. And, it has
many advantages: spreading load of parts, making more
room especially for a small humanoid robot, and etc. In
Fig. 3, the diagram on the left the left diagram is industrial
EHA system composed of a hydraulic cylinder, an electric
motor, a bi-directional hydraulic generator and an
Fig.5 Force transmission in hand frame
Each finger consists of DIP, PIP and MP joint which is
shown in Fig. 5. Here, T is the tension in wire generated by
the linear actuator. This force generates torque on the axis
of rotation of fingertip. F1 is changed into a following to
easily calculate the distance from the axis,
F1 = T cos θ
Here, θ is the angle between T and F1 Force on
fingertip can be obtained as follows; At the above equation,
F1 is a torque which occurs in the fingertip. l1 is the
vertical length from the axis of rotation.
τ 1 = F1l1 = Tl1 cos θ

541
 If l2, F2 is the crossing point of lines of extended from
the fingertip and in the direction of rotation on the
fingertip. The torque is shown as following
τ 2 = F2l2
F2, The force to be exerting to a patient is as following.
l1
F2 = T cos θ
l2
In Fig. 6, F1 is cylinder thrust. The moment Ic generated
by the cylinder is as follows;
I c = F1l1
F2 is the resultant force between average weights of the
forearm m1 and lifting weight m2, the moment of resultant
force If is
I f = F2l2
Fig.6 Force transmission in robot arm
2.4 Control System of Robot Hand
Fig.7 Control architecture of Robot Hand System
Fig.7 illustrates of control system of upper limb muscle
power assistance system, it can be controlled by remote
controller or RS485 communication. The change of stroke
can be monitored by linear potential meter.
Fig.8 Schematic diagram of control board
542
Fig.8 is a schematic diagram of control board. Con1 and
Con3 are connected to external PC communication. And
Con2 is to MPU and GPIP (ADC). The value of stoke of
linear actuator is connected to input signal of remote
controller in this system. Con4 is for motor of actuator.
Circuit pattern is as below.
- Line1: 12V power line connected to diver chip (A3950)
and power regulator chip.
- Line2: RS485 line for PC communication connected to
MPU through RS485 communication IC Chip1
(MAX485).
- Line3: PWM and direction signal to control driving
direction and voltage of actuator are connected from
MPU to driver.
- Line4: Remote controller signal and the value of stroke
of the linear actuator are connected from Con2 to
MPU.
- Line5: Line3 signal from driver chip is connected to
motor power.
Table 1: Specifications of linear actuator
LSA – 3024
Stroke length 24mm
Rated force 30N
No load speed 8mm/s
Power 1.3W/6.5V
Feedback Potentiometer
Resolution 0.1mm
Mass 33g
Table 1 shows the specifications of the linear actuator.
Allegro's A3950 driver chip is used to drive linear actuator
LSA-3024.It receives 11.1V battery input and drives
actuator through H-bridge circuit in it. The control system
supports 2 modes. The first is position control mode to
receive potentiometer feedback and calculate actuator's
stroke as a position value. The second is power control
mode to regulate remote controller's input. RS485
communication standard is employed to communicate
with top PC.
3. Performance Evaluation
3.1 Experiments of Robot Hand System
The output voltage of each sensor is recorded as an
analog signal and converted into digital signal through
DAQ (Data Acquisition) board. Test method is to change
remote controller's input from 2.4V to 12V.The force was
measured by FT sensor and the speed was calculated by
the difference of input signals between the remote
controller and FT sensor.
 Fig.9 Response time for generating enough force
The graph was plotted for the force versus time. The
graph is constant when the force reaches 24.3 N. Fig.9
shows the transient force generated by a linear actuator
with 12V.
Fig.10 Impedance control with voltage input
Fig.10 is the graph of relationship between power and
speed, at input voltage from 2.4V to 12V.
Fig.11 Bending angle of each finger joint
Fig.11 shows the bending angle changes of a finger with
the change of tendon-wire length.
3.2 Experiments of Robot Arm System
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Fig. 12 Hydraulic circuit of measurement system
Fig.12 shows the measurement system for performance
testing of a robot arm actuated by hydraulic power. MHCC
(Micro Hydraulic Compressor Converter), which is a
small sized EHA developed for the robot arm system [14],
is driven by 4.5W DC motor. Sensor is installed in the
outlet of MHCC, to measure pressure, flow and
temperature. The discharge pressure can be changed from
0kgf/cm2 to 50kgf/cm2 by the relief valve in the discharge
pipe.
Force(N)
Fig.13 Step response of the actuating module for a robot
arm
Fig.13 shows the response time for generating actuating
force. Here, the system saturation time is 1.43 sec at 12V,
changing the pressure from 0N to 750N and the time
constant is 1.09 sec to 375N (the target pressure 50%).
Fig.14 Flow rate generated by Micro EHA
 Fig.14 shows the step response of flow rate of the micro
EHA which generate hydraulic power. Here, the maximum
flow rate is 50ml/min and the system saturation time is 3.1
sec at 12V, and the time constant to the target maxim flow
63% is 1.09 sec.
4. Conclusion and Future Work
In this paper, the innovative wearable rehabilitation
robot for patients was suggested and its performance was
evaluated by experiments. It was easier to be worn to
people who needs physical training and was free from
external wiring to the person using it so that he or she can
walk more readily and conveniently. It can be applicable
to wide range of physical conditions which require
rehabilitation training such as gradual hand/arm
movements training. It is not only simple and repeat
rehabilitation training by speed and power controlled by
input voltage, but also light, mobile and easy to wear robot.
In the future, this rehabilitation training robot will be
tested for various patients, and continued to be improved
its design and functionalities for more complicated needs.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported and funded by Korea Institute
of Science and Technology and Ministry of Knowledge
Economy, Republic of Korea.
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