ACTIVE, ACTUATED, AND ASSISTIVE: A SCOPING REVIEW OF EXOSKELETONS FOR THE HANDS AND WRISTS
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Assistive technology is often incorporated into rehabilitation and support for those impacted by upper limb impairments. When powered, these devices provide additional force to the joints of users with muscle weakness. Actuated devices allow dynamic movement compared to splints, therefore improving the ability to complete activities of daily living. However, these devices are not often prescribed and are underrepresented in research and clinical settings. OBJECTIVE: This review examines the current body of literature concerning devices designed to aid the hands and wrists in daily activities. Focusing on active, powered, and actuated devices, to gain a clearer understanding of the current limitations in their design and prescription. METHODOLOGY: The scoping review was conducted using the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A systematic search was done on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and NHS the Knowledge Network from inception to May 2023. Articles were included if the device was portable; supported the hands and wrist actively using an actuator; and could be used for assistive living during or post-rehabilitation period. FINDINGS: A total of 135 studies were included in the analysis of which 34 were clinical trials. The design and control methods of 121 devices were analyzed. Electrical stimulation and direct mechanical transmission were popular actuation methods. Electromyography (EMG) and joint movement detection were highly used control methods to translate user intentions to device actuation. A total of 226 validation methods were reported, of which 44% were clinically validated. Studies were often not conducted in operational environments with 69% at technology readiness levels ≤ 6, indicating that further development and testing is required. CONCLUSION: The existing literature on hand and wrist exoskeletons presents large variations in validation methods and technical requirements for user-specific characteristics. This suggests a need for well-defined testing protocols and refined reporting of device designs. This would improve the significance of clinical outcomes and new assistive technology. Layman's Abstract Assistive devices are often incorporated into rehabilitation and support for those impacted by upper limb impairments. When powered, these devices provide additional force for users with muscle weakness. Unlike splints, these devices do not constrict movement, therefore improving the ability to complete activities of daily living. However, these devices are rarely prescribed or presented in research and clinical settings. This review examines the current literature concerning powered devices that aid the hands and wrists to investigate who uses them, how they are designed and how they are validated. The scoping review was conducted using a validated guideline. A systematic search was done on 5 databases up to May 2023. Articles were included if the device was portable; supported the hands and wrist using motors; and could be used for everyday tasks. A total of 135 studies were included in the analysis, of which 34 were clinical trials. The design and method of device function of 121 devices were analysed. Muscle and joint movement detection were highly used to control device movement. A total of 226 validation methods were reported, of which 44% were clinically validated. Studies were often conducted in research and clinical environments (69%) rather than at home settings. In conclusion, existing literature on hand and wrist exoskeletons presents large variations in design, control methods and validation practices. This suggests a need for well-defined testing protocols. This would improve the significance of clinical outcomes of new assistive technology. Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/article/view/43827/33279 How To Cite: Galbert A, Buis A. Active, actuated, and assistive: A scoping review of exoskeletons for the hands and wrists. Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal. 2024; Volume 7, Issue 1, No.9. https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v7i1.43827 Corresponding Author: Professor Arjan Buis, PhDDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.E-Mail: arjan.buis@strath.ac.ukORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3947-293X
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".