Abstract
An efficient measurement and evaluation system for hand tool tasks can provide a practical solution to the problem of designing and evaluating manual tool tasks in the workplace. Such a prototype system, termed the data glove, was developed by overlaying twelve Force Sensitive Resistors on an posture-measuring glove (Cyberglove, Virtual Technologies, 1992) with eighteen joint angle sensors. To validate the data glove, hand posture and grip force was measured on sixteen different cylindrical grip tasks for six subjects. A factor analysis of the grip force distributions on the hand indicated that three major areas of force concentration occurred: 1) an area of high force levels termed the 'active' area, 2) an area of intermediate force levels termed the 'support' area, and 3) an area of low force levels termed the 'inactive' area. The different grips were also classified and ranked for levels of radian/ulnar deviation torques and flexion/extension torques, and then combined with the force information to yield a pattern of grip degradation with increasing levels of grip stress. A validation experiment comparing the data glove force output with the muscle surface EMG measurement yielded a significant, high correlation between the two measures.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 553-557 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society |
| Volume | 1 |
| State | Published - 1995 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering