ForceHand Glove: A Wearable Force-Feedback Glove With Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (PAMs)

The upper limb of the human body has a higher likeliness of getting affected by muscle fatigue and injury, due to repetitive motion. This letter presents an interactive glove for the wrist of the human body. The assistive model is enabled with pneumatic actuators and stretch sensors, which support the user in performing wrist flexion, extension, pronation, and supination. The purpose of this glove is to provide the subject with a force-feedback feeling, and while a repetitive practice of such training is done, rehabilitation can be achieved. For evaluation, surface electromyographical signals were first used to study the effect of force feedback on associated muscle activation. Average % maximum voluntary isometric contraction of all subjects showed statistically reduced muscle activity in at least one associated muscle while performing all motions, enabled with actuators. Second, the force feedback generated by the glove at the user's wrist has been modeled using experiments with a force transducer. An application was then developed where the user was given the ability to interact with virtual objects and receive feedback through the glove. The evaluation of the feasibility of this application was done by measuring and comparing force profiles while generating an equal force in an ideal and a predicted environment.