The Journal of Engineering

19th International Conference of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Control

Engineering (2018)

System study of pneumatic exoskeleton eISSN 2051-3305

Received on 2nd October 2018

rehabilitation manipulator
Accepted on 12th October 2018
E-First on 21st November 2018
doi: 10.1049/joe.2018.9005
www.ietdl.org

Xudong Ma1, Ruibo Yuan1 , Sizhong Fang1

1Facultyof Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, 727#Jingming South Road Chenggong District,
Kunming, People's Republic of China
E-mail: kmust_yrb@163.com

Abstract: In this study, biological characteristic of manpower is analysed and then the structural of exoskeleton rehabilitation
manipulator is designed base on the thought of modular. First, the overall assembly drawing is drawn by SolidWorks. Second,
the controlled pneumatic system is designed. The mainly contents are selecting mini pneumatic cylinder as a driver and
controlling electromagnetic reversing valve which can lead to the piston movement of cylinder by STM32F429 microcontroller.
At last, the movement simulation of exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator is done and analysed by ADAMS, and then the
experimental research of the same move pattern with simulation is carried out. It is proved that the pneumatic exoskeleton
rehabilitation manipulator system has certain reliability and feasibility. Furthermore, it has the ability to meet the rehabilitation
needs of patients with finger movement disorders.

1 Introduction it can obtain real-time related parameters in the process of finger

Nowadays, the incidence of limb movement loss and its
complications are increasing which is caused by accidents such as
car accidents, accidental fractures and neurological dysfunction.
With the rapid development of science and technology around the
world, science and technology are naturally applied to the medical
treatment.
Currently, the study about auxiliary in patients with hemiplegia
rehabilitation training and lower limb movement on the
exoskeleton of rehabilitation robot has been basically mature, but
there is not much research on robot in specifically for patients with
hand movement disabilities for rehabilitation training. Hand is
indispensable to human, and can complete all kinds of complex,
flexible and changeful action. When patients had suffered
apoplexy, its ability to stretch bending, adduction outreach will
slowly become weak, and even complete loss. Also when the hand
is injured, muscle elasticity is lost to a certain extent, and its
reaction speed and range of activity are limited. At present, patients
with hand movement disorder can be conducted to improve the
hand movement function through long-term and regular treatment
[1], and finally recovered.
Therefore, scholars at home and abroad are working on the
development of rehabilitation manipulator, it could use for training
hand auxiliary by bending and stretching joint of fingers to achieve
the aim of rehabilitation [2]. The patients were given a certain
intensity and time of repetitive training to reduce the atrophy of the
brain's nervous system, which unable to exercise autonomously for
a long time. That is, patients can gradually recover their motor
nervous system and then restore movement to disabled fingers by
carry out regular training through the manipulator.
In 1960s, GM of the United States was the first one who
developed the exoskeleton system [3], which began to developing.
Kim et al.[4] from Korea have developed DULEX and DULEX-II
which could control wrist, forefinger and other three-finger
movement except thumb [5]. Bi et al. [6] jointly developed a 3-
degree-of-freedom exoskeleton manipulator that can only be used
for non-variable fingers. The carpometacarpal joint (CPM)
machine developed by Di Cicco and Ali Faraz of the United States
is driven by an air cylinder [7]. Sun et al. developed a simple data
glove [8] that can track the state of the knuckles of the hand at all
times. Fu et al. developed a motor to drive the index finger of CPM
machine [9], the CPM machine based on modular design idea,
which separate control, drive and implement to three modules, and
movement to provide a reference basis for training treatment.
Weiss et al. use 3D technology to print the exoskeleton of the hand
[10]; it can improve the mechanism of the design work at any time.
After analysing the hand rehabilitation exoskeleton structure
designed by domestic and foreign scholars and the technical
difficulties of the current exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator
system, the main work of this study is about the manipulator
structure design based on the modular thought. Not only is the
exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator applied to patients with
different length knuckles, but also it could separate control, drive
and execution system. Finally, the experiment can verify the
rationality of the design of structure of the exoskeleton hand
rehabilitation.
2 Experimental platform construction of
exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator
The design of exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator should
include the structure body of auxiliary rehabilitation training,
feedback system and comprehensive rehabilitation system. It is
known that the design should be based on safety, reliability,
comfort, initiative, and convenience from the goal and task of
manipulator [11]. At the same time, it is important to design an
exoskeleton which is suitable for the rehabilitation of patients with
different finger lengths when assembled into a complete structure.
Therefore, consideration of the variability and adaptability of the
manipulator structure is also indispensable.
2.1 Movement range of finger
Since the individual joints of the fingers such as CMC,
metacapophalangeal joint (MCP) and interphalangeal joint (IP)
have different shapes, they also have different degrees of freedom.
As shown in Fig. 1, the second and third metacarpals are
interconnected with the small polygonal bone and the first strong
bone, and the biting between them is very close; in other words,
they are basically immovable joint. The joints are formed by the
fourth and fifth metacarpals and the hook bone, which have a
certain range of motion. The flexion–extension movement range of
the fourth CMC is between 10° and 15°, and the flexion–extension
movement range of the fifth CMC is between 20° and 30°.
As shown in Fig. 2a, it can be seen that the motion range of the
MCP is from 0° to ∼90°. The movement between each finger is

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Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the right hand [12]
different. The fifth finger is the largest in the range of flexion, close
to 95°, and the index finger is close to 70° [13]. As shown in
Fig. 2b, the 0° position in the same plane between the finger and
the palm of the hand is the beginning of the measurement of
flexion, the maximum flexion angle of the proximal
interphalangeal joint (PIP) is close to 100°. As shown in Fig. 2c,
the flexion of the distal interphalangeal joint (DIP) is close to 90°.
2.2 Structural design of exoskeleton rehabilitation
manipulator
After analysing the structure and movement principle of
exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator studied by scholars at home
and abroad, a new design scheme for rehabilitation of hand
exoskeletons is proposed. The new type of exoskeleton actuator is
designed with the index finger as an example shown in Fig. 3.
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the rotation of the pulley will
drive the contact finger, which will drive the finger to rotate around
its joint. Each joint has a mobile auxiliary design. There are two
functions in total: First, this design can meet the patients with
different lengths of joints and help their fingers rehabilitation; the
second is to ensure the normal contraction of the hand when the
patient recovers.
The actuator includes a number of small assemblies, all of them
are easily disassembled and assembled, and the style of each part is
simple. In addition, the structure of the exoskeleton rehabilitation
robot also includes an auxiliary part. It includes some components
such as an arm fastening bracket, a front seat bracket, a tailstock
bracket, a column, a connecting rod, a cylinder bracket and the
like.
2.3 Structure design of control system
The control system of exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator
mainly includes air pump, DC power supply, electromagnetic
valve, one-way throttle valve, relay, barometer, STM32F429
microcontroller and other pneumatic auxiliary devices, such as
trachea, trachea joints and so on. The schematic diagram is shown
in Fig. 4.
2.3.1 Selection of cylinder: The SNACE mini-cylinder used in
this article is the model CDJ2D10*30. Its outer diameter is 11 mm,
inner diameter is 10 mm, diameter of piston rod is 4 mm and the
maximum stroke is 30 mm, as is shown in Fig. 5.
182
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Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of three joints flexion motion [12]
(a) MCP flexion, (b) PIP flexion, (c) DIP flexion
2.3.2 Electromagnetic reversing valve and relay: As shown in
Fig. 6, the electromagnetic reversing valve used in this article is
three-position five-way solenoid valve which is made in AirTac.
The pressure range is 0.15–0.8 MPa; the drive voltage is 12 V DC.
However, the output voltage of the STM32F429 microcontroller is
5 V, the electromagnetic reversing valve cannot be directly driven.
So the relay is used to solve the problem, as a power amplifier to
amplify the output signal of the microcontroller that achieving the
purpose of driving the solenoid valve. As shown in Fig. 7, the
maximum allowable DC voltage of the relay module in the
solenoid valve is 30 V, the current is 10 A, and meanwhile, the AC
voltage and current are, respectively, 250 V and 10 A. There are 8
channels in the relay.
2.3.3 STM32F429 microcontroller: The STM32F429
microcontroller is a new product introduced by the company
STMicroelectronics in 2012. Its main frequency has been increased
to 180 MHz, and the technology has been enhanced in the
graphical interface.
The core of STM32F429 is Cortex M4 with digital signal
processing (DSP) instruction set. There are many advantages such
as the speed of digital-to-analogy conversion is fast; the
multiplexing function of I/O is enhanced, real-time clock with
calendar function and 32-bit timer. There is also a camera interface
(Dublin Core Metadata Initiative), a crypto processor (CRYP) and
a controller in it. The power consumption is low.
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Fig. 3 Index finger actuator
Fig. 4 Control principle diagram
Fig. 5 Mini cylinder
3 Motion simulation analysis and experimental
study of exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator
Motion analysis software, ADAMS, was used to simulate the
movement of the exoskeleton actuator. The joint analysis of
actuator system and control system is carried out. The experiment
can not only compare with the simulation, but also evaluate the
performance of the exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator system.
3.1 Simulation analysis of exoskeleton rehabilitation
manipulator
As the movement pattern and the structure of four fingers are the
same, this article takes the index finger as the research object.
Moreover the simulation analysis of MCP, PIP and DIP these three
joints' movement is carried out about the whole finger. The
simulation parameters were proximal phalanx 50 mm, middle
phalanx 28 mm and distal phalanx 24 mm.
There are several hypotheses when carrying out the simulation
analysis as follows:
(i) There is a rigid connection between the exoskeleton and the
hands, and there will be no relative movement between them.
(ii) Ignore the viscoelasticity of the skin and look at the fingers as
rigid bodies.
(iii) Exoskeleton is belt driven, and its deformation is negligible
during movement.
(iv) The skeleton of the hand is a rigid material with uniform
density and isotropy.
(v) The tendon and tendon sheath of the hand form a cylindrical
movement pair, ignoring the friction force of the tendon during
movement.
J. Eng., 2019, Vol. 2019 Iss. 13, pp. 181-185
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Fig. 6 Electromagnetic reversing valve
Fig. 7 Relay and microcontroller
The mini cylinder moves fast, both extension and retraction
time are 1 s. In order to make a clear contrast between simulation
and experiment, the simulation time is set to 1 s and the number of
steps is 34. The three joints motion posture and the three joints’
rotation angle are shown in Fig. 8.
Under the condition that the joint movement of MCP, PIP and
DIP these three joints, the position posture of the three joints
conform to the actual motion state. The maximum rotation angles
of the three joints are 23.5624 (MCP), 35.3436 (PIP) and 24 (DIP),
which basically meet the actual situation of the ratio of three joint
angles to 2:3:2. In addition, from the displacement (b) curves, it
can be seen that the bending angle of the PIP is greater than DIP,
which is in line with the law of the bending angle of the normal
human fingers when grasping the movement, and with the
increasing of time, the movement trends of the two joints are
basically the same.
3.2 Experimental study on exoskeleton rehabilitation
manipulator
3.2.1 Physical prototyping: As shown in Fig. 9, there is an entire
physical prototype system. In the system, the exoskeleton is worn
on the hand, and the air inlet and outlet ends of mini pneumatic
cylinder are, respectively, connected to the interface A and B of
electromagnetic reversing valve. Meanwhile, a one-way throttle
valve is used between the directional valve and the cylinder to
control the flow entering the cylinder and a barometer in series
within the system is located next to the throttle for reading out gas
pressure at any time. The microcontroller is used to control the on
or off status on both sides of the electromagnetic reversing valve,
thereby changing the direction of the air that flowing into the
cylinder, and controlling the cylinder to extend and retract to
realize bending and straightening of the finger.
3.2.2 Tri-joint motion experiment: The method for extracting the
trajectory of the fingertip in the experiment is described as follows.
Preparing a scale for calculating image proportion, as shown in
Fig. 10, and then using a camera with a capture rate of 34 frames
per second to take a picture in finger bending motion, after, making
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Fig. 8 Co-simulation of MCP, PIP and DIP
(a) Position and posture, (b) Displacement

Fig. 11 Joint experiment of MCP, PIP and DIP

(a) Position and posture, (b) Displacement, (c)Track comparison

Fig. 9 Physical prototype system the video clip and save the captured video as a static image format.
Extract the coordinates of the fingertip from the pictures through
the software CAXA. Finally, the trajectory is drawn by using
MATLAB, and then compared with the simulation.
The mechanism of exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator is
that these MCP, PIP and DIP three joints are driven by the
connecting rods and pulleys which are driven by a mini-cylinder,
so that the finger can do rehabilitation training by the exoskeleton.
The position posture of the joints, the rotation angle and the
trajectory of the fingertip are shown in Fig. 11.
It can be seen from Fig. 11b, that the results of the experiment
are 21.9° (MCP), 37.1° (PIP) and 23.7° (DIP), and it is differ from
the simulation. As the manufacturing errors also have a certain
influence; such as there are many structural members, and some of
them are clearance fits, so the assembly errors do exist. Also, due
Fig. 10 Model of joint experiment to the use of a video camera, there is an error in image acquisition
during the extraction of the image.

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 It can be seen from Fig. 11c, that there is a certain difference
between the experimental trajectory and the simulation. When the
finger is fully extended, the error of fingertip between experiment
and simulation is 1.68 mm. The main reason for the difference is
the fact that the finger length of simulation model is different from
measured value during the experiment. There is a distance
difference between the actual fingertip point and the point of the
simulation model. Since the mark point at the distal phalanx in
simulation is the forefront fingertip and the selection of mark point
during the experiment cannot be completely coincident with their
fingertip.
In addition, from the experimental fingertip trajectory and the
simulated fingertip trajectory comparison chart, it can be seen that
the experimental trajectory curve is not smooth and has slight
disturbance. On the one hand, there is a moving pair between the
finger and the chute of the MCP joint and the PIP joint. When the
exoskeleton drives the finger movement, the finger is not smooth
enough to move along the chute. On the other hand, the
exoskeleton and the finger are connected by the strap. The
exoskeleton easily slides or flutters when it drives the knuckle. As
a result, the measurement data fluctuates.
4 Conclusion
In this paper, the motion simulation of exoskeleton rehabilitation
manipulator is analysed and the motion experiment is carried out
by printing 3D models. In the joint movement situation of MCP,
PIP and DIP these three joints, the actual rotation angles of the
three joints are 21.9°(MCP), 37.1°(PIP) and 23.7°(DIP)，but the
results of the simulation are 23.5624°(MCP), 35. 3436° (PIP) and
24°(DIP). There are some errors obviously. These errors are caused
by the measurement error of knuckle, the selected error of trace
points, the processing error in the period of manufacture and the
human error during assembly. Although there are some errors, both
the knuckle motion trajectory and angular range of motion are
basically meeting the overall design requirements. At the same
time, the motion of exoskeleton rehabilitation manipulator is
reliable. So the overall design of the system is reasonable.
J. Eng., 2019, Vol. 2019 Iss. 13, pp. 181-185
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5 Acknowledgments
We thank Professor Ruibo Yuan for the guidance in simulation and
experiment.
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