A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen
and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or
bursts. It often causes body impairments to the survivors,
which seriously decrease the quality of life.
Physical rehabilitation is available to regain some lost
function; however, it is very labour intensive and costly. The
problem of the stroke is very widespread in the world. For
example, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of
Canada, there are over 50,000 strokes in Canada each year
[1]. Several researchers have proposed the use of robotic
devices as a way to improve the effectiveness of the
rehabilitation process [2].
The hand is one of the most used and difficult parts of the
body to be rehabilitated. Despite the challenge, devices like
Myoelectric Hand Orthosis [3] have been presented in
academic paper in early 90's. In general, the hand
rehabilitation devices can be divided in two categories. One
focuses on hand rehabilitation through simple movements,
such as hand grasping or extension of the fingers with
limited degree of control. Devices like Rutger master II [4],
Gentle/g system [5] and a pneumatic muscle hand therapy
device in [6] belong to this category. The other type of hand
rehabilitation devices [7]-[11] is capable of providing