Phillip Tran

BioE PhD Proposal

Date: December 14, 2021

Time: 10AM

Location and Bluejeans info: 3115 UAW, https://bluejeans.com/749150615/8222, Meeting ID 749 150 615

Advisor: 

Prof. Jaydev P. Desai (School of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Committee:

Prof. Omer Inan (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Prof. Boris Prilutsky (School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Prof. Greg Sawicki (School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Prof. Aaron Young (School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Development of a tendon-driven, voice-controlled soft robotic hand exoskeleton

Functional hand movement is an important component of many activities of daily living, such as using a phone or eating. Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) can severely impact hand motor and sensory function, and accordingly, patients with SCI are often unable to complete basic everyday tasks without assistance. The focus of this proposed work is to develop and evaluate a robotic system to improve hand and finger functionality during the performance of everyday tasks in individuals with hand dysfunction. First, a tendon-driven, voice-controlled soft robotic assistive hand exoskeleton is designed and developed with the purpose of providing active assistance to users during grasping and pinching motions. Second, a self-sealing suction cup is developed and integrated into an exoskeleton system to explore alternate strategies for the manipulation of objects. Finally, the developed exoskeleton system is evaluated on individuals with and without hand dysfunction to characterize the performance of the system in clinically relevant settings. Successful completion of the proposed work will result in a step towards a clinically relevant assistive robotic system for individuals with hand dysfunction.