Wired glove

Radiology

Neuroscience

Gesture

Rehabilitation

Human–computer interaction

Magnetic resonance imaging

Wearable computer

Engineering

Biomedical engineering

Actuator

Exoskeleton

Embedded system

Artificial intelligence

Psychology

Pneumatic actuator

Soft robotics

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

Computer science

Robotics

Simulation

Medicine

Robot

IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and evaluation of a soft wearable robotic glove, which can be used with functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) during the hand rehabilitation and task specific training. The soft wearable robotic glove, called MR-Glove, consists of two major components: a) a set of soft pneumatic actuators and b) a glove. The soft pneumatic actuators, which are made of silicone elastomers, generate bending motion and actuate finger joints upon pressurization. The device is MR-compatible as it contains no ferromagnetic materials and operates pneumatically. Our results show that the device did not cause artifacts to fMRI images during hand rehabilitation and task-specific exercises. This study demonstrated the possibility of using fMRI and MR-compatible soft wearable robotic device to study brain activities and motor performances during hand rehabilitation, and to unravel the functional effects of rehabilitation robotics on brain stimulation.

A Magnetic Resonance Compatible Soft Wearable Robotic Glove for Hand Rehabilitation and Brain Imaging