Soft hand exoskeleton is one of the technological alternatives for patients with hand paralysis. Several designs had been proposed to assist these patients to improve their quality of life. However, some of them are heavy and bulky and are not suitable for daily use. This work proposes a lightweight soft hand exoskeleton that can be activated using Electrooculogram (EOG). It has an under-actuated mechanism and 3D printed parts with cable routed around the glove and weighs 110 g. A control strategy was developed so that the wearer can blink their eyes to flex and extend the fingers. A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate its efficacy in performing basic gripping and grasping. The exoskeleton has the ability to grip and grasp objects with different shapes and sizes. It is hoped that the integration of EOG and soft hand exoskeleton can provide a new and unique way of rehabilitating the patient's hand and assisting him/her in various activities of daily living (ADL).

1. In H, Kang BB, Sin M, Cho K. Exo-Glove: a wearable robot for the hand with a soft tendon routing system. IEEE Robot Autom Mag. 2015;22(1):97–105. doi:10.1109/mra.2014.2362863
2. Kang BB, Lee H, In H, Jeong U, Chung J, Cho KJ. Development of a polymer-based tendon-driven wearable robotic hand. Proc IEEE Int Conf Robot Autom (ICRA). 2016:3750–3755. doi:10.1109/ICRA.2016.7487562
3. Shahid T, Gouwanda D, Nurzaman S, Gopalai A. Moving toward soft robotics: a decade review of the design of hand exoskeletons. Biomimetics. 2018;3(3):17. doi:10.3390/biomimetics3030017
4. Fontana M, Dettori A, Salsedo F, Bergamasco M. Mechanical design of a novel hand exoskeleton for accurate force displaying. IEEE Int Conf Robot Autom. 2009:1704–1709. doi:10.1109/ROBOT.2009.5152591
5. Wege A, Hommel G. Development and control of a hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation of hand injuries. IEEE/RSJ Int Conf Intell Robots Syst. 2005:3046–3051. doi:10.1109/IROS.2005.1545506
6. Chiri A, Vitiello N, Giovacchini F, Roccella S, Vecchi F, Carrozza MC. Mechatronic design and characterization of the index finger module of a hand exoskeleton for post-stroke rehabilitation. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatronics. 2012;17(5):884–894. doi:10.1109/TMECH.2011.2144614
7. Popov D, Gaponov I, Ryu JH. Portable exoskeleton glove with soft structure for hand assistance in activities of daily living. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatronics. 2016;22(2):865–875. doi:10.1109/TMECH.2016.2641932
8. Polygerinos P, Wang Z, Galloway KC, Wood RJ, Walsh CJ. Soft robotic glove for combined assistance and at-home rehabilitation. Robot Auton Syst. 2015;73:135–143. doi:10.1016/j.robot.2014.08.014
9. Xiloyannis M, Cappello L, Khan DB, Yen SC, Masia L. Modelling and design of a synergy-based actuator for a tendon-driven soft robotic glove. IEEE Int Conf Biomed Robot Biomechatron (BioRob). 2016:1213–1219. doi:10.1109/BIOROB.2016.7523796
10. Yap HK, Lim JH, Nasrallah F, Goh JCH, Yeow CH. Characterisation and evaluation of soft elastomeric actuators for hand assistive and rehabilitation applications. J Med Eng Technol. 2016;40:199–209. doi:10.3109/03091902.2016.1161853
11. Haghshenas-Jaryani M, Carrigan W, Nothnagle C, Wijesundara MB. Sensorized soft robotic glove for continuous passive motion therapy. IEEE Int Conf Biomed Robot Biomechatron (BioRob). 2016:815–820. doi:10.1109/BIOROB.2016.7523728
12. Li M, He B, Liang Z, et al. An attention-controlled hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation of finger extension and flexion using a rigid-soft combined mechanism. Front Neurorobot. 2019;13:34. doi:10.3389/fnbot.2019.00034
13. Radder B, Prange-Lasonder GB, Kottink AI, et al. Preliminary evaluation of a wearable soft-robotic glove supporting grip strength in ADL. Springer Proc Converging Clin Eng Res Neurorehabilitation II. 2017:1245–1250. doi:10.1177/2055668316670553
14. Nilsson M, Ingvast J, Wikander J, von Holst H. The soft extra muscle system for improving the grasping capability in neurological rehabilitation. IEEE EMBS Conf Biomed Eng Sci (IECBES). 2012. doi:10.1109/IECBES.2012.6498090
15. Jian EK, Chan, Gouwanda D, Kok Kheng T. Wearable hand exoskeleton for activities of daily living. IEEE-EMBS Conf Biomed Eng Sci (IECBES). 2018:221–225. doi:10.1109/IECBES.2018.8626719
16. Heo J, Yoon H, Park KS. A novel wearable forehead EOG measurement system for human-computer interfaces. Sensors. 2017;17(7):1485. doi:10.3390/s17071485
17. Rogalska A, Rynkiewicz F, Daszuta M, Guzek K, Napieralski P. Blinking extraction in eye gaze system for stereoscopy movies. Open Phys. 2019;17(1):512–518. doi:10.1515/phys-2019-0053
18. Lee KS, Jung MC. Ergonomic evaluation of biomechanical hand function. Saf Health Work. 2015;6(1):9–17. doi:10.1016/j.shaw.2014.09.002
19. Alipour AHK, Kazeminasab S, Elahinia M. ASR glove: a wearable glove for hand assistance and rehabilitation using shape memory alloys. J Intell Mater Syst Struct. 2018;29(8):1575–1585. doi:10.1177/1045389X17742729
20. Takagi M, Iwata K, Takahashi Y, Yamamoto SI, Koyama H, Komeda T. Development of a grip aid system using air cylinders. IEEE Int Conf Robot Autom. 2009:2312–2317. doi:10.1109/ROBOT.2009.5152246
21. Participant Setup. YNIC York Neuroimaging Centre. 2020. Available at: https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/guides/megoperators/2010-01A/html/apcs03.html (accessed 16 Sep 2020)