A Hybrid Procedural / Knowledge - Based Approach to the Animation of Human Hand Grasping

Although computer animation of articulated figures has been the focus of extensive research in computer graphics, the study of the animation of hand grasping has been rather limited. However, hand grasping has been extensively studied in the fields of kinesiology and robotics. Traditionally, researchers in the field of robotics have used analytical methods to solve the problem of hand grasping. In recent years, a knowledge-based approach, which uses information obtained from motor control studies, has increasingly gained acceptance. Studies in kinesiology have shown that humans tend to use a pre-determined set of hand configurations. This makes the search for a suitable grasp posture tractable. Thus, it is possible t o use the information obtained from these two fields in the developnlent of an approach to the animation of human hand grasping. In this thesis, the main objective is to investigate and develop tools to support the modelling and animation of human hand grasping. A hybrid procedural knowledge-based approach is used to construct an animation system, which will serve as the platform for determining the effectiveness of these tools.