1. Introduction
When a human hand grasps an object the hand can be viewed as a parallel manipulator. In general, the mathematical analyses of the human hands and multi-fingered robot hands (Murray et al. 1994) are similar. In particular, concepts developed in robotics such as contact models, e.g. soft-finger model, grasp matrix, form and force closure grasps, internal forces, etc. can be applied to analyze the performance of the human hands. Multi-finger prehension is an example of a mechanically redundant task: the same resultant forces on the object can be exerted by different digit forces. People however do not use all the mechanically available options; when different people perform a certain manipulation task they use a limited subset of solutions.
Studies on human prehension deal with four main issues:
Description of the behavior: What are the regularities in force patterns applied at the fingertip-object interfaces when people manipulate objects?
Are the observed patterns dictated by the task and hand mechanics? The mechanical properties of the hand and fingers are complex, and it is not always evident whether the findings are direct consequences of the mechanical properties of the hand or they are produced by a neural control process.
If the observed facts/phenomena are not of mechanical origin are they mechanically necessitated? In other words, can the task be performed successfully in another way?
If reproducible phenomena are not mechanical and not mechanically-necessitated, the question arises why the central nervous system (CNS) facilitates these particular phenomena. This is a central question of the problem of motor redundancy in general: Why does the CNS prefer a certain solution over other existing solutions?
The present chapter briefly reviews some specific features of the human hand and the involved control mechanisms. To date, the experimental data are mainly obtained for the so-called
Experimental ‘inverted-T’ handle/beam apparatus commonly used to study the prismatic precision grip. Five six-component force sensors (black rectangles) are used to register individual digit forces. During testing, the suspended load could vary among the trials. The load displacement along the horizontal bar created torques from 0 Nm to 1.5 Nm in both directions. The torques are in the plane of the grasp. While forces in all three directions were recorded the forces in
2. Digit contacts
During an object manipulation the finger tips deform and the contact areas are not constant (Nakazawa et al. 2000, Paré et al. 2002, Serina et al. 1997, Srinivasan, 1989, Srinivasan et al. 1992, Pataky et al. 2005). The fingers can also roll on the sensor surface. As a result, the point of digit force application is not constant: it can displace by up to 5-6 mm for the fingers and up to 11-12 mm for the thumb (Figure 2). Therefore the digit tip contacts should be as a rule treated as the soft-finger contacts (Mason & Salisbury, 1985).
When a soft-finger model of the digit-object contact is employed, the contact is characterized by six variables: three orthogonal force components (the normal force component is uni-directional and the two tangential force components are bi-directional), free moment in the plane of contact, and two coordinates of the point of force application on the sensor. To obtain these data the six-component force and moment sensors are necessary. The coordinates of the point of force application are not recorded directly; they are computed from the values of the normal force and the moment around an axis in the contact plane. Such a computation assumes that the fingers do not stick to the sensor surfaces, in other words the fingers can only push but not pull on the sensors. In such a case the moment of force about the sensor center is due to the application of the resultant force at a certain distance from the center. The displacements of the points of digit force application change the moment arms of the forces that the digits exert on the hand-held object and make the computations more cumbersome.
3. Hand asymmetry and hierarchical prehension control
Asymmetry in the hand function is an important feature that differentiates the hand from many parallel manipulators used in engineering as well as from some robotic hands (Fu & Pollard 2006). The functional hand asymmetry is in part due to the hand design (e.g. the thumb opposing other fingers, differences in the capabilities of index and little fingers, etc.) and in part is due to the hand control.
Due to the specific function of the thumb opposing other fingers in grasping, the forces of the four fingers can be reduced to a resultant force and a moment of force. This is equivalent to replacing a set of fingers with a
Functional hand asymmetry is also manifested in different responses to perturbations in the supination effort (SE) and pronation effort (PE) tasks. [The anatomical terms supination and pronation refer to the rotation of the forearm and hand along the longitudinal forearm axis in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions, respectively (as seen by the performer).] For instance, when subjects double their initial grasping force whilst maintaining the handle in the air in equilibrium, in the PE tasks the moment of normal forces exerted on the object increases while in the SE tasks it decreases (Figure 3). Such moment changes are not determined by the hand anatomy which is approximately symmetrical about the longitudinal axis of the hand (Li et al. 1998a). The changes in the moments of the normal forces are compensated by equal and opposite moments of the tangential forces such that the total moment exerted on the object does not change.
Another example of the functional hand asymmetry in the SE and PE tasks comes from the experiments with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). A single-pulse TMS applied over the hand projection in the left motor cortex (its descending pathways go to the segmental apparatus that controls the right hand) induced different reactions in the SE and PE tasks (Figure 4). Note that the changes in the total moment of force scale with the background moment of force (task moment of force in Figure 4), but supination responses dominate.
The reasons behind the asymmetrical hand reactions to the TMS-induced perturbations in the SE and PE tasks are presently unknown.
4. Finger interdependence and inter-finger connection matrices
In studies on parallel manipulators, the contacts are usually considered independent and identical in their properties. Consequently, all contact points are treated equally. Actions of human fingers are not independent (reviewed in Schieber, Santello, 2004; Zatsiorsky, Latash 2004; 2008). To demonstrate the finger interdependence turn your palm up and wiggle the ring finger. You will see that other fingers also move. This simple demonstration is an example of the so called
Finger interdependence is commonly described by
where f is a (41) vector of the normal finger forces, [W] is a (44) inter-finger connection matrix whose elements depend on the number of fingers involved in the task (i.e. they represent both the finger enslaving and force deficit), and c is a (41) vector of
When the vector c is reconstructed, forces generated by individual fingers can be decomposed into components that are due to (a) direct commands to the targeted fingers, and (b) the enslaving effects, i.e. the commands sent to other fingers (Figure 5).
5. Agonist and antagonist fingers
In multi-finger grasps, the finger forces generate the moments of force with respect to the thumb as a pivot. The fingers that are located above and below the thumb, for instance the index and the little fingers, generate moments in opposite directions (Li et al. 1998a, b). Moments in a desired direction —those that resist the external torque—have been termed the
Activation of the antagonist fingers increases the energy expenditure and can be mechanically unnecessary. Patterns of the antagonist moments depend on the load/torque combinations and can be described using a
6. Grasp equation
The force-moment transformations from the digit tips to the hand-held object can be described with a
For a planar task (see Figure 1), F is a (31) vector of the resultant force and moment acting on the object, G is a (310)
Equation (2) is a linear equation that allows for using the common methods of linear algebra. The equation is based however on a simplifying assumption that the elements of the grasp matrix are constant, i.e. the points of digit force applications do not displace during the period of observation. If they migrate, the elements of G are not constant anymore and the equations become non-linear: variable values of digit forces are multiplied by the variable values of moment arms. In computations, this obstacle can be avoided if a (101) f vector is expanded to a (151) vector where the added elements are the moments exerted by the individual digits with respect to the corresponding sensor centers. Matrix G in this case is 315. For a general 3-D case, matrix G is 630.
7. Internal forces during object manipulation
In multi-digit grasping, a vector of contact forces and moments f can be broken into two orthogonal vectors: the resultant force vector fr (manipulation force) and the vector of the internal force fi (f= fr + fi) (Kerr & Roth 1986, Yoshikawa & Nagai 1990, 1991). An
In five-digit grasps in 3-D space, vector of individual digit forces and moments f is a 30×1 vector. Its relation with a 6×1 vector F of the resultant forces and moments acting on the object is described by equation (2) where G is a 6×30 grasp matrix (Salisbury & Craig 1982; Kerr & Roth 1986). Vector of the internal forces fi lies in the null space of G (the null space of a
So far, the research was mostly limited to the planar tasks performed with mechanically unconstrained objects and analyzed at the VF level. According to the mathematical analyses (Kerr & Roth 1986, Gao et al. 2005), at this level there exist only three internal forces: the
The manipulation force is prescribed by the task mechanics. The internal forces allow for much freedom. The manipulation force vector and the vector of the internal force are mathematically independent (Kerr & Roth 1986, Yoshikawa & Nagai 1991). Practically this means that the central controller can change manipulation force without changing the internal force and vice versa (Yoshikawa & Nagai 1990, 1991, Gao et al. 2005 b, 2005c). This opportunity is realized in robotics manipulators where the manipulation force and the internal forces are commonly controlled separately (e.g., Zuo & Qian 2000); the control is said to be decoupled. The decoupled control requires less computational resources; the controller does not have to bother about on-line adjustments of the grasp force to object acceleration and/or orientation. This strategy requires, however, exerting unnecessarily large forces and is, in this sense, uneconomical. People do not use this option. Available data suggest that the CNS prefers to face larger computational costs rather than produce excessive forces. In contrast to robots, people adjust the internal forces to the manipulation forces during the object transport (Flanagan & Wing 1993, 1995; Smith & Soechting 2005; Zatsiorsky et al. 2005, Gao et al. 2005 b, 2005c). The pattern of the adjustment depends on the performed movement.
Gao et al (2005 b, 2005c) studied vertical and horizontal object movement at the three handle orientations, vertical, horizontal and diagonal (inclined 45o). In total, six combinations of handle orientation and movement direction were tested: (1) Parallel manipulations. (1a). VV task: Vertical orientation-vertical movement. (1b). HH task: Horizontal orientation-horizontal movement. (2) Orthogonal manipulations. (2a) VH task: Vertical orientation-horizontal movement. (2b) HV task: Horizontal orientation-vertical movement (3) Diagonal manipulations. (3a.) DV task: Diagonal orientation-vertical movement. (3b). DH task: Diagonal orientation-horizontal movement. In the above description the following terminology is used: When the handle orientation and the direction of manipulation are along the same axis (e. g. a vertically oriented handle is being moved in the vertical direction or a horizontally oriented handle in the horizontal direction) the manipulation is called the
The summary results on the coordination of internal forces in various manipulation tasks are presented in Table 1. The following terminology is used.
Manipulation | Coupling of the thumb and VF normal forces (Grasping synergies) | Internal force-manipulation force (acceleration) couplung | |
Parallel | VV | Symmetric | Positive |
HH | Symmetric | Positive (the internal force increases slightly with the acceleration magnitude) | |
Orthogonal | VH | Anti-symmetric | Inverted -V pattern (symmetric) |
HV | Depends on the frequency. Approximately anti-symmetric at high frequencies. | Depends on the frequency. At high frequencies an asymmetric inverted-V pattern with the peak at 1 g | |
Diagonal | DV | Symmetric | Positive |
DH | Anti-symmetric | Positive (for the selected direction of the coordinate axes) |
Consider the cases of symmetric GS and anti-symmetric GS. When people move a vertically oriented object in the vertical direction (the VV tasks) the grip force
Quite a different coordination is observed in the VH tasks (horizontal movement of a vertically oriented object). In these tasks, the maximal grasping force is observed at the instances of maximal speed, and hence zero acceleration (Smith & Soechting 2005; Gao et al. 2005a, b), Figure 8.
In addition to the grasping force changes, the moments exerted by the normal and tangential digit forces also change during object manipulation while compensating for each other’s changes and preserving the object orientation (Figure 9).
8. Local and synergic reactions to perturbations
When grasping different objects performers adjust digit forces to the object features. Two types of the adjustments are distinguished, local and synergic. The term
An example of the local and synergic reactions could be seen in experiments in which the friction under each digit was different, either high or low, resulting in eight friction conditions (for the three-digit grasps, Niu et al. 2007) or 32 friction conditions (Aoki et al. 2007). The difference between the high and low friction was three-fold. When friction under a digit was low, its tangential force decreased and the normal force increased (local effects). Digit forces were also adjusted to friction at other digits (synergic effects). The synergic effects were directed to maintain the handle equilibrium. For instance, to keep the total tangential force constant, the tangential forces of the thumb and fingers changed in opposite directions (Figure 10).
Not only the VF tangential force but also the tangential forces of the individual fingers are affected by the local friction conditions (Aoki et al. 2007; Niu et al. 2007). The tangential force adjustments to the local friction support the notion that the VF tangential force sharing is under neural control; the sharing percentage is not determined solely by the passive mechanical properties of the individual fingers and joints. In other words, the metacarpal joints cannot be modeled as simple hinges.
Local and synergic reactions are not limited to adjustments to local friction. For instance, similar reactions were observed when performers were holding a motorized handle while the handle width was forcibly either increased or decreased (Zatsiorsky et al. 2006). Handle expansion/contraction did not perturb the handle equilibrium; both the resultant force and moment acting on the handle remained the same. However, when the handle width increased each digit was perturbed (the length of the flexor muscle increased), and a restoring force tending to return the digit to its previous position arose (the local digit force adjustment). The local mechanisms, e.g. stretch reflexes, were directed to resist the imposed digit displacement. These mechanisms violated the object equilibrium, whilst the synergic force adjustments restored the equilibrium.
9. Principle of superposition in human prehension
The
When applied to multi-finger grasps in humans, the principle claims that at the VF level the forces and moments during prehension are defined by two independent commands: “Grasp the object stronger/weaker to prevent slipping” and “Maintain the rotational equilibrium of the object”. The commands correspond to the two internal forces discussed previously, the grip force and the internal moment. The effects of the two commands are summed up. The validity of the principle was confirmed in a set of diverse experiments (for the review see Zatsiorsky et al. 2004; see also Shim et al. 2005 and Shim & Park, 2007)). The principle allows explaining the digit force adjustments to different factors such as (a) the load force and its modulation associated with the handle acceleration; (b) the external torque and its modulation; (c) the object orientation in the gravity field; (c) friction at the digit tips; and some other variables. The variations of the above factors may require similar or opposite adjustments. For instance, an increase of the object weight and a decrease in friction both require a larger gripping force while, a decrease of the load and a decrease in friction require opposite grasp force changes, a force decrease and increase, respectively. It has been suggested that the CNS responds to a mixture of similar or opposite requirements follows a rule: Adjustment to the sum equals the sum of the adjustments (reviewed in Zatsiorsky& Latash 2008).
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