Tesis (Magíster en Ingeniería Electrónica)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stroke is the third leading cause of
disability and the second leading cause of death worldwide, mainly affecting lower-middleincome countries. The upper limb, specifically the hand, is one of the most common motor
disabilities following a stroke. The hand plays a vital role in performing activities of daily
living (ADLs), so hand rehabilitation is essential. With technological development in recent
years, soft robotics has emerged as a possible solution to provide physical and cognitive assistance during rehabilitation. This master’s thesis presents the development of two versions
of a replicable hand exoskeleton for hand rehabilitation and assistance in ADLs based on
soft robotics for stroke survivors, the ExHand Exoskeleton. The device is evaluated through
standard functionality and usability tests on ten healthy subjects. The results demonstrate
that the device satisfies the requirements of a hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation and assistance with a glove weight of 137 g and total system weight of 971 g, as well as its actuators
perform a distal force of 9.18 ± 1.16 N, sufficient to grasp different objects associated with
activities of daily living. Likewise, the person using the device can perform different daily
living activities, such as writing and eating. In addition, the ExHand Exoskeleton can perform eight types of grasping with 24 objects of different shapes, sizes, textures, weights, and
stiffness with 80.80% similarity to a healthy user. Also, the user satisfaction questionnaire
results indicated a positive mean score of 4.27 ± 0.34 on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to
5. Finally, two surveys were conducted to evaluate the acceptance and intention of use by
clinicians, showing that the device is a valuable and easy-to-use tool to support neurological
patients.