Toward Dexterous Hand Functional Movement: Wearable Hybrid Soft Exoglove-FES Study

Functional electrical stimulation (FES), a lightweight wearable technology leveraging active muscle recruitment, can assist functional movement for rehabilitation and various activities of daily living. However, the intricate and user-specific nature of the neuromuscular response to FES, such as the induction of muscular fatigue and discomfort, can lead to incomplete or imprecise functional movements. On the other hand, soft exoskeleton gloves, another form of lightweight wearable technology for hand movement assistance, guide movement externally with higher precision. In this research, therefore, we present a novel hybrid system that combines a soft exoskeleton glove and FES technology. Such an augmented hybrid system could reinforce the advantages of active muscle recruitment as a primary source of actuation with external actuation of the exoskeleton compensating for the limitations of FES in torque generation. Our objective is to investigate the performance of this hybrid system compared to the standalone FES system through experimental evaluation.