Study of gripping comfort evaluation criteria based on grasping simulation

Abstract

In this study, we studied gripping comfort criteria based on grasping simulations using three hand finite element models with different hand sizes. Three individual hand finite element models with dimensions of 5^th%ile, 50^th%ile and 95^th%ile of Japanese adult male were utilized to simulate grasping motion and to obtain contact pressure distribution during grasping. To generate a dataset of contact pressure distribution, grasping simulations with 60 different conditions (3 diameters of cylindrical object × 5 subjects × 4 positions of the thumb) were conducted. Gripping comfort scores under each condition were calculated by assigning the contact pressure result acquired from the simulation into the regression equation reported in our previous study. According to analysis result, contact pressure distribution was varied by the position of the thumb. However, gripping comfort score was not significantly affected by the position of the thumb as well as the diameter of the cylindrical object used in this study.