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For people with spinal cord injuries/diseases (SCI/D), performing daily tasks can be a challenge due to an impaired ability to grasp and manipulate objects with their hands.
University of Cincinnati researchers, in collaboration with end users in the community, have received a $200,000 grant from Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) to design a user-centered, easy-to-use assistive device to help restore hand grasping motions.
Study background
UC’s Derek Wolf, PhD, the project’s principal investigator, said biomedical engineers have developed many exoskeletons — robotic devices worn over the user’s hand — to assist with grasping. These devices often work well in lab settings, but few end users adopt hand exoskeletons and wear them in real-world settings for the long term.
“We make these really cool devices, but they don’t get to that next step for any number of reasons,” said Wolf, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. “What we’re trying to do with this project is involve end users throughout and focus on actually making a device that will translate beyond the lab.”
The research team is aiming to combine an exoskeleton device with another technology called functional electrical stimulation (FES) that runs electricity through a paralyzed muscle to get the muscle to contract.
“If you just put an exo on someone’s hand, you’re not really taking advantage of the hand that is there, arm muscles that are there,” Wolf said. “There’s an efficiency gap when you just throw an exo on. We can use those muscles to generate force or motion.”
Wolf’s background includes expertise in FES and incorporating it into hybrid systems. While the goal is to eventually fully integrate FES with a motorized exoskeleton, this project will first try to combine FES with a passive exoskeleton that cannot move on its own.
“FES can be hard to control and get fine motor control, so our hope is to use the exo on top of it to make that control easier while the motion is still driven by the FES,” Wolf explained. “So if FES causes a finger to move, the exo is going to move with it and get a nice grasp.”
Wolf said major barriers include making interfaces user-friendly and simple for a lay person to operate, devices being cumbersome for users to quickly put on and take off by themselves, and the fact that each person’s injury and needs are unique.
“Making a device that helps a lot of people but also is able to help an individual person is a real challenge,” he said. “Our hope is that, by including users throughout, we can really do that.”
