A Novel Approach to Model the Kinematics of Human Fingers Based on an Elliptic Multi-Joint Configuration
This work addresses the need for more accurate hand models in robotics or prosthetics, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing kinematic modeling approaches.
The paper tackled the problem of modeling human finger kinematics by proposing an elliptic multi-joint configuration to account for soft tissues and anatomical structures, showing high performance in mimicking fingertip motion trajectories compared to conventional revolute joint models.
In this paper, we present a novel kinematic model of the human phalanges based on the elliptical motion of their joints. The presence of the soft elastic tissues and the general anatomical structure of the hand joints highly affect the relative movement of the bones. Commonly used assumption of circular trajectories simplifies the designing process but leads to divergence with the actual hand behavior. The advantages of the proposed model are demonstrated through the comparison with the conventional revolute joint model. Conducted simulations and experiments validate designed forward and inverse kinematic algorithms. Obtained results show a high performance of the model in mimicking the human fingertip motion trajectory.