抄録
To design a suitable hand-controlled joystick, it is necessary to study the sensory motor characteristics of the force and torque actively exerted by the hand. However, since the basic data is inadequately covered by research papers and databases, this study was performed based on actual operating postures. This paper focuses on the following points. 1) A comparison of the directional dependency of the minimum torque exerted by the dominant hand. 2) A verification of Weber's law, namely the ratio of the minimum torque to the prior load torque. To measure the torque exerted by a hand, a joystick capable of sensing six axes of force and torque was prepared and an experiment performed using 10 young males and 7 young felames as subjects. The results showed that, a) the minimum torque increases in accordance with the load torque in all directions, b) the minimum torque of the radial flexion is larger than that in the other directions, and c) Weber's ratio close to between approximately 0.1 and 0.15 as the load torque increases. The results suggest that the minimum exerted torque differs depending on the direction of application, and that Weber's law is applicable.
