Haptic Portable Pad for Hand Disease Manual Treatment

Nowadays, researchers are focusing their efforts on the remote distribution of devices for rehabilitation, allowing users to perform the exercises without the presence of a doctor. Physiotherapists, usually, employ manual therapy to treat patients with musculoskeletal discomfort and/or impairments. The purpose of this study is to introduce HAPP, a novel portable haptic device aimed to assist people suffering from various hand diseases, and more generally, to replicate the traditional mechanical and rhythmic stimulus features of manual treatments in order to study the effects of manual therapy in case of carpus and metacarpus problems. Its structure is composed of a mobile plate, actuated by a 3DOF parallel robot, with a rack-and-pinion mechanism that activates the end-effector to stimulate the user's hand palm.