Abstract-Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States, affecting over 795,000 people annually. In order to regain motor function of the upper body, patients are usually treated by regular sessions with a dedicated physical therapist. A cost-effective wearable upper body orthotics system that can be used at home to empower both the patients and physical therapists is described. The system is composed of a thin, compliant, lightweight, cost-effective soft orthotic device with an integrated cable actuation system that is worn over the upper body, an embedded limb position sensing system, an electric actuator package and controller. The proposed device is robust to misalignments that may occur during actuation of the compliant brace or when putting on the system. Through simulations and experimental evaluation, it was demonstrated i) that the soft orthotic cable-driven shoulder brace can be successfully actuated without the production of off-axis torques in the presence of misalignments and ii) that the proposed model can identify linear and angular misalignments online.

The ability to measure human hand motions and interaction forces is critical to improving our understanding of manual gesturing and grasp mechanics. This knowledge serves as a basis for developing better tools for human skill training and rehabilitation, exploring more effective methods of designing and controlling robotic hands, and creating more sophisticated human-computer interaction devices which use complex hand motions as control inputs. This paper presents work on the design, fabrication, and experimental validation of a soft sensor-embedded glove which measures both hand motion and contact pressures during human gesturing and manipulation tasks. We design an array of liquid-metal embedded elastomer sensors to measure up to hundreds of Newtons of interaction forces across the human palm during manipulation tasks and to measure skin strains across phalangeal and carpal joints for joint motion tracking. The elastomeric sensors provide the mechanical compliance necessary to accommodate anatomical variations and permit a normal range of hand motion. We explore methods of assembling this soft sensor glove from modular, individually fabricated pressure and strain sensors and develop design guidelines for their mechanical integration. Experimental validation of a soft finger glove prototype demonstrates the sensitivity range of the designed sensors and the mechanical robustness of the proposed assembly method, and provides a basis for the production of a complete soft sensor glove from inexpensive modular sensor components.

This paper describes the design, fabrication, and experimental validation of a soft tactile sensor array for submillimeter contact localization and contact force measurement in micromanipulation. The geometry and placement of conductive liquid microchannels embedded within the elastic sensor body are optimized to provide high sensitivity for representative micromanipulation tasks and to overcome functional limitations seen in previous soft tactile sensor research. Mechanical testing of the numerically optimized sensor prototype demonstrates sensitivity to normal contact forces of <50 mN and submillimeter contact localization resolution. Tactile sensing experiments demonstrate the ability to infer the abstract geometries and motions of objects imparting force on the sensor surface by analyzing microchannel deformation patterns.

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