Exo-Skin Soft Haptic Exoskeletal Interface
Wearable exoskeletal technology remains a challenging task despite advances in sensing, actuation and fabrication techniques. It can be used in the military for strength augmentation, the medical field for rehabilitation and commercially for gaming and haptic human computer interaction. We have developed a textile haptic exoskeletal system that is not bound by these constraints. The Exo-Skin device is a knitted tendon actuated exoskeleton capable of delivering force and textural feedback to individual fingertips. The knitting process is similar to a 3D printer, however, rather than extrude plastic, it uses a variety of fibers including nylon, spandex and low-melt PET. These fibers are specifically positioned to knit a complex structure into a single piece. After the glove is knitted it is heat-treated so that all phalangeal segments become semi-rigid while the interphalangeal segments remain malleable to accommodate for joint flexion. This fabrication platform allows rapid prototyping that can be scaled quickly to fit different size hands. All actuation and control mechanisms are mounted on the arm, making the device an untethered standalone system. The Exo-Skin is controlled by an Arduino-based system communicating via serial link with the nearest computer or Bluetooth enabled device. For human computer interaction applications, the “Leap Motion” sensor provides sub-millimeter accurate location information to place the user's hand within a computational 3D space. Contact us at functionalfabrics@drexel.edu for more information.
Collaborators
| Genevieve Dion, MID |
Center for Functional Fabrics, Drexel University; Department of Design, Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University |
| Andrew R Cohen, PhD |
Bioimage Lab, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Drexel University |
Funded by Drexel University College of Medicine, Clinical & Translational Research Institute (PI Fedorczyk); Drexel University Steinbright Career Development Center; and by the National Institute of Aging (R01AG041861, PI Cohen/Temple).
PUBLICATIONS
Koerner M, Wait E, Winter M, Cohen AR, Dion G. 2014. The Exo-Skin Soft Haptic Exoskeletal Interface. In: The Fiber Society 2014 Fall Meeting and Technical Conference; 2014 October 22-24; Philadelphia, PA.
Patent
Exo-Skin Haptic Glove Data Interaction System and Rehabilitative Device | Drexel Ref. 14-1640D | U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/946,820 Filed 3/2/2014