The objective of this work is to design a rehabilitation mechanism for the index finger that can replicate the finger´s natural movements in the sagittal plane; this mechanism must also be able to adapt to an individual’s anthropometric dimensions. The personalization of the mechanism is made through a parametric model assisted by computer-aided design software. An infrared motion capture system is used to validate the natural finger movements, comparing them to the ones generated by the parametric designed mechanism. The replication of natural finger movements with this mechanism is possible due to the use of virtual centers and the employment of two degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom is proximal phalanx flexion-extension, and the other one is the middle-distal phalanges conjoined movement. The replication of natural motions and the use of personalization techniques offer three main advantages: a diverse set of rehabilitation exercises, an increase in the range of motion of the finger compared to other designs in the literature and the short construction time required for the rehabilitation device.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.