A Review of Hand Function Rehabilitation Systems Based on Hand Motion Recognition Devices and Artificial Intelligence

The incidence of stroke and the burden on health care and society are expected to increase significantly in the coming years, due to the increasing aging of the population. Various sensory, motor, cognitive and psychological disorders may remain in the patient after survival from a stroke. In hemiplegic patients with movement disorders, the impairment of upper limb function, especially hand function, dramatically limits the ability of patients to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Therefore, one of the essential goals of post-stroke rehabilitation is to restore hand function. The recovery of motor function is achieved chiefly through compensatory strategies, such as hand rehabilitation robots, which have been available since the end of the last century. This paper reviews the current research status of hand function rehabilitation devices based on various types of hand motion recognition technologies and analyzes their advantages and disadvantages, reviews the application of artificial intelligence in hand rehabilitation robots, and summarizes the current research limitations and discusses future research directions.