Wearable sensory-motor orthoses for tele-rehabilitation

The integration of electroactive polymeric materials into wearable garments endorses them with strain sensing and mechanical actuation properties. The combined use of new polymeric electroactive materials in the form of fibers and fabrics with emerging concepts of biomimetic nature in sensor data analysis, pseudomuscular actuator control and biomechanic design may provide new avenues toward the realization of truly wearable kinesthetic and haptic interfaces. The conception and early-stage implementation of a fabric-based wearable interface, endowed with spatially redundant strain sensing and distributed actuation, are illustrated with reference to a wearable upper limb kinesthetic system.