Finger Shell: Predicting Finger Pad Deformation under Line Loading

In this paper we introduce a new model of the mechanics of a finger pad that is efficient to simulate. The model simplifies the finger pad mechanics by assuming it to be a thin shell enclosing fluid-like material. Unlike similar approaches in the literature, we incorporate the bending stiffness of the skin and a subject-specific geometric model into the simulation. Thanks to these two features, our model can predict the surface deflection of the whole finger pad with the error of 0.2 to 0.4 mm with reasonable computational cost.