Compliance control using finger-arm coordination: analysis of human motion in constraint work

The paper aims to clarify the human hand and arm mechanism of force control by analyzing constraint work performed by human from the standpoint of biomechanism, and to study a manipulator control strategy on the basis of it. It presents the results of an experiment and analysis of human motions in handling a bead on a guide shaft as an example of constraint work of 1 degree of freedom (DOF), and observations of the roles that the hand and arm play in manual work. It was found as a result that human mainly absorbs the rotational force generated during constraint work by hand and the translational force generated during the same by arm. The study also brought to light that there existed a direction of motion and a posture which would permit easy absorption of translational force. In applying the roles of the human hands and arms to robots, translational compliance can be freely set in manipulators having 6 or higher DOF.<>