Dexterous workspace of human two- and three-fingered precision manipulation

Precision manipulation, in which an object held between the fingertips is translated and/or rotated with respect to the hand without sliding, is used frequently in everyday tasks such as writing, yet few studies have examined the experimental precision manipulation workspace of the human hand. This study evaluates the range of positions over which 19 participants manipulated a moderately sized (3.3-4.1cm diameter) object using either the thumb and index finger (2 finger condition) or the thumb, index and middle fingers (3 finger condition). The results show that the 2-fingered workspace is on average 40 % larger than the 3-fingered workspace (p <; 0.001, likely due to added kinematic constraints from an additional finger. Representative precision manipulation workspaces for a median 17.5cm length hand are shown from multiple views to clearly illustrate the overall workspace shape, while the general relationship between hand length and workspace volume is evaluated. This view of the human precision manipulation workspace has various applications, ranging from motivating the design of effective, comfortable haptic interfaces to benchmarking the performance of robotic and prosthetic hands.

[1]  D. Slocum,et al.  Disability evaluation for the hand. , 1946, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume.

[2]  Wan Kyun Chung,et al.  Human kinematic factor for haptic manipulation : the wrist to thumb , 2002, Proceedings 10th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. HAPTICS 2002.

[3]  F. Valero-Cuevas,et al.  An involuntary stereotypical grasp tendency pervades voluntary dynamic multifinger manipulation. , 2012, Journal of neurophysiology.

[4]  C. Gosselin,et al.  Optimal Design of 2-Phalanx Underactuated Fingers , 2004 .

[5]  Thomas H. Massie,et al.  The PHANToM Haptic Interface: A Device for Probing Virtual Objects , 1994 .

[6]  Li-Chieh Kuo,et al.  Functional workspace for precision manipulation between thumb and fingers in normal hands. , 2009, Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology.

[7]  Henry C. Lin,et al.  Review of methods for objective surgical skill evaluation , 2011, Surgical Endoscopy.

[8]  Aaron M. Dollar,et al.  Dexterous manipulation with underactuated elastic hands , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  Jiting Li,et al.  Kinematics and workspace analysis of an exoskeleton for thumb and index finger rehabilitation , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics.

[10]  Ryuichi Yokogawa,et al.  Manipulabilities of the index finger and thumb in three tip-pinch postures. , 2004, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[11]  Aaron M. Dollar,et al.  A parallel robots framework to study precision grasping and dexterous manipulation , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[12]  Thomas Feix,et al.  A comprehensive grasp taxonomy , 2009 .

[13]  Aaron M. Dollar,et al.  Linkage-Based Analysis and Optimization of an Underactuated Planar Manipulator for In-Hand Manipulation , 2014 .

[14]  Antonio Frisoli,et al.  Kinematic Design of a Two Contact Points Haptic Interface for the Thumb and Index Fingers of the Hand , 2007 .

[15]  Geraldo F. Silveira,et al.  Direct Visual Servoing: Vision-Based Estimation and Control Using Only Nonmetric Information , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[16]  Heiner Deubel,et al.  Contact points during multidigit grasping of geometric objects , 2011, Experimental Brain Research.

[17]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  The Intuitive/sup TM/ telesurgery system: overview and application , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[18]  Just L. Herder,et al.  A Platform for Grasp Performance Assessment in Compliant or Underactuated Hands , 2010 .

[19]  Mark L Latash,et al.  Multifinger Prehension: An Overview , 2008, Journal of motor behavior.

[20]  Danica Kragic,et al.  A Metric for Comparing the Anthropomorphic Motion Capability of Artificial Hands , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[21]  Jian S. Dai,et al.  Posture, Workspace, and Manipulability of the Metamorphic Multifingered Hand With an Articulated Palm , 2011 .

[22]  Aaron M. Dollar,et al.  A Hand-Centric Classification of Human and Robot Dexterous Manipulation , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.