Authors:
Marc Franke
and
Martin Bogdan
Affiliation:
University of Leipzig, Germany
Keyword(s):
Thumb, Motion, Scaphoid-Trapezium-Trapezoid, Joint, Workspace, Prosthetic hand.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Limbs
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Instruments and Devices
;
Biorobotics
Abstract:
Hand prostheses need to be lightweight, robust and forceful and should replace the function and range of performance of the human hand in the best possible way. Furthermore, their look and appearance should turn up as naturally as possible. The prostheses and anthropomorphic robot hands known today often lack one or more of those aspects. We assume that the kinematic function of the thumb is additionally supported by the kinematic function of the STT (Scaphoid-Trapezium-Trapezoid) joint, which builds the radial carpal column. Our study is based on a previous work by Essers (Essers, 2006) determining the specific movements of the STT joints. In this study, these results were combined with a kinematic 3D model of the human hand with focus on the kinematic of the radial carpal column. We set up a kinematic chain of the radial carpal column and the thumb bones to analyse the data gained from the measured movements. The simulations revealed, that the joint movement of the STT joint suppor
ts up to 1/3 of the motion range of the adduction, abduction, flexion and extension. Based on these results, we integrated the previous findings into a real kinematic model of the human thumb.
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