Abstract
This paper describes a dimensional synthesis method used in the design of a passively actuated finger exoskeleton that takes into account the user limb anthropometric dimensions and contact requirements for grasping objects. The paper is the first step in our current efforts on design of wearable devices that use a common slider at the hand to passively actuate each exo-finger. The finger exoskeleton is comprised of a 3R serial limb and is constrained to an eight-bar slider mechanism.
To design the exo-limb, the pose of the index finger was captured using an optical motion capture and its dimensions were determined using a constrained least square optimization of its center of rotation. To facilitate the data capture, a 3D printed wearable Infra-red (IR) marker system was designed and placed on the finger's phalanx. To illustrate the approach, an example of the design of an index exo-finger is described.