Assessment of a Fault-Tolerant Control-Based Wearable Tremor Suppression Glove Under Faults and Disturbances

Pathological tremor severely impacts the quality of life of affected individuals. The need for tremor management approaches that are free of side effects and surgical complications has sparked research in wearable tremor suppression technology. The existing wearable tremor suppression devices have achieved suppression ratios of up to 90%. Although the achieved performance is promising, the safety of using these devices outside of a lab environment, where faults and disturbances exist, has not been studied. It was recently discovered that existing tremor suppression systems are not effective and safe for users when faults and disturbances are present. Therefore, this study proposes and evaluates a novel fault-tolerant control system for tremor suppression. Using 18 tremor datasets previously recorded, the performance of the proposed system under three simulated common faults was evaluated on a bench-top mechatronic tremor simulator. The assessment showed that the proposed system remained safe and functional after introducing the faults, maintaining at least a 60% tremor suppression rate, and root mean square tracking error lower than 2.7° (compared to 80.5° without the proposed system). This study improves the robustness and safety of wearable tremor suppression devices, providing strong evidence to facilitate the transition of these devices from the lab to real-life applications.