Kinematic analysis and synthesis of the human arm motion during a manipulation task

Abstract

Research in the field of human kinematic analysis has gained interest in recent years and has fostered new ideas and expectations. Next generation manipulators are expected to resemble a human-like behaviour at kinematic level, in order to avoid any unease or discomfort (like fear or shock) to the nearby humans. In this work, a kinematic experimental approach to study and synthesize the motion of the human arm is presented. In particular, the proposed scenario will be used to study how humans exploit the kinematic redundancy of their arms, for a future use in a robotic controller. A simple, yet accurate, method for human-like redundancy resolution in robotic manipulators is developed and verified.