THE SOFT ROBOTIC SIXTH FINGER Il sesto dito robotico
EVERYDAY LIFE IS EXTRAORDINARY OGNI GIORNO Ăˆ STRAORDINARIO
Alessandro lives and works in Siena. His life flows smoothly in this charming provincial town situated in the heart of the hilly Tuscan countryside. Until one day, when he was about 50, Alessandro got a stroke and his life drastically changed. Following this unlucky event, in fact, Alessandro experiences a severe hemiparesis that seriously compromises his right hand and arm use. Simple daily actions, such as brushing his teeth, peeling an apple or opening a jar, become impossible to him and he resigns himself to rethink many common habits of his life. After about three years, Alessandro met Prof. Domenico Prattichizzo, Professor of Robotics at the University of Siena, where he leads a research team specialized in robotic manipulation and technology for human hands. Domenico Prattichizzo founded in Siena the SIRSLab (Siena Robotics and Systems Lab.), composed of twenty young motivated researchers from all over the world, he's the leader of a research unit working on many EU projects (ROBOCAST, THE, ACTIVE, DALI) and the coordinator of a large european project "WEARable HAPtics for Humans and Robots" (WEARHAP) since 2013. Improving the condition of Alessandro and of all those who suffer of the same diseases represents a challenge that this enthusiastic and ambitious scientist cannot refuse. That's the beginning of an experience that, after over six months of study and experiments, led to an highly innovative research project: the "Soft Robotic Sixth Finger" (http://thesixthfinger.diism.unisi.it). The project is developed in cooperation with the neuroscientist, Prof. Simone Rossi and his SI-BIN lab. The idea is to provide the chronic stroke patients, and more in general any subject with an impaired hand, with a wearable robotic extra-finger that can be used as grasp compensatory tool for hemiparetic upper limbs to compensate for grasping in many activities of daily living. The robotic finger and the paretic hand act like the two parts of a gripper working together to hold an object. This approach recovers the ability to grasp and stabilize objects, while continuing to motivate the patients to use residual mobility of their paretic upper limb.
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