Assistive Robotic Hand Orthosis (ARHO) controlled with EMG: evaluation of a preliminary prototype

Hand impairment severely limits basic activities of daily living (ADL). The use of motorized hand orthoses may provide enough functional assistance to perform basic tasks, such as grasping objects. Several prototypes have been proposed in the last decade, but there are still no solutions with the desired features regarding the weight, wearability and functionality. This paper describes the overall implementation of a prototype of an assistive robotic hand orthosis (ARHO) for object grasping, that can be triggered manually or by the detection of muscular activity in the forearm using surface electromyography (sEMG). The system is being specifically designed for a case study of a person with hemiplegia resulting from a peri-insular hemispherectomy. The proposed orthosis is a very preliminary but functional prototype, still far from the desired features mentioned above, but serves to show all the modules composing a low-cost implementation, and above all, to understand all the constraints and difficulties in designing such a system.