Combining Soft Robotics and Brain-Machine Interfaces for Stroke Rehabilitation 

Stroke is a devastating condition with profound implications for health economics and resources worldwide. Recent works showed that the use of brain-machine interfaces (BMI) could help movement improvements in severely affected chronic stroke patients. This work shows the feasibility and use of a Soft Orthotic Physiotherapy Hand Interactive Aid (SOPHIA) system, able to provide more intense rehabilitation sessions and facilitate the supervision of multiple patients by a single Physiotherapist. The SOPHIA device is controlled by a BMI system and has a lightweight design and low cost. Tests with researchers showed that the system presents a reliable and stable control, besides being able to actively open the volunteers’ hands.