The range of human kinematic motion as well as force resolution should be known for design of a haptic device. In addition, a haptic interface can be designed more easily when master and slave devices are the same kinematically. However, human kinematic factors have not been analyzed and applied deeply because of their complexity. Although calibration techniques have been developed, there is a ...

A tetraplegic volunteer was implanted with percutaneous intramuscular electrodes in hand and forearm muscles. Furthermore, a sensory nerve cuff electrode was implanted on the volar digital nerve to the radial side of the index finger branching off the median nerve. In laboratory experiments a stimulation system was used to produce a lateral grasp (key grip) while the neural activity was recorde...

The Rutgers Master II-ND glove is a haptic interface designed for dextrous interactions with virtual environments. The glove provides force feedback up to 16 N each to the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingertips. It uses custom pneumatic actuators arranged in a direct-drive configuration in the palm. Unlike commercial haptic gloves, the direct-drive actuators make unnecessary cables and pulle...

Hand velocity and acceleration are coherent with magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals recorded from the contralateral primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex. To learn more of this interaction, we compared the coupling of MEG signals with four hand-action-related peripheral signals: acceleration, pressure, force, and electromyogram (EMG). Fifteen subjects performed self-paced repetitive hand-action ...

A new prosthetic hand with a fixed thumb and four fingers actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) type artificial muscle has been developed in this paper. Different from typical geared motor, SMA actuator is lightweight and silent, however shows a little short stroke and small attracting force per each unit. In order to achieve enough output force and motion range of each finger, multiple SMA type...

The transient data of the pinch force produced between the human forefinger and thumb have been shown to fit the functional form of the well-known lognormal density function. Isometeric force generation is achieved by the stochastic recruitment of individual motor units, which sum together. Evidence from animal and human experiments demonstrates that the force generation can be modelled by unde...

Hand exoskeletons have been developed in order to assist daily activities for disabled and elder people. A figure exoskeleton was developed using ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators, and the performance of it was evaluated in this study. In order to study dynamic performance of a finger dummy performing pinching motion, force generating characteristics of an IPMC actuator and pinchin...

When we manipulate objects in everyday tasks, there are variations in the shape of the grasped surfaces, and the loads that potentially destabilize the grasp include time-varying linear forces and torques tangential to the grasped surfaces. Previous studies of the control of fingertip forces for grasp stability have dealt principally with flat grip surfaces and linear force loads. Here, we stud...

A novel control methodology for master-slave systems using passive force feedback has been proposed by the authors. The methodology solves the conventional problems of previously developed master-slave systems with force feedback, such as oscillations, complex structures and complicated control algorithm. In the present paper, a multi-fingered exoskeleton haptic device (master hand) with passiv...

BACKGROUND Advances in insulin pen technology continue to improve the usability of these devices for patients with diabetes. In this study, ergonomic features and injection force, as measured by glide force (GF) and glide force variability (GFV), were evaluated for the new Humalog Mix75/25 KwikPen (KwikPen) and compared with the NovoLog Mix 70/30 FlexPen (FlexPen). METHODS Fifty prefilled ins...