In automated assembly, before parts can be put together, they often have to be appropriately oriented and positioned. The device performing this task is generally referred to as a part feeder. A new class of devices for non-prehensile distributed manipulation, such as MEMS actuator arrays, vibrating plates, etc., provide an alternative to traditional mechanical platforms for part feeding. These...

The primary objective of the experiments was to investigate the wrist motion of a person while they were carrying out a prehensile task from a clinical hand function test. A six-camera movement system was used to observe the wrist motion of 10 participants. A very light sphere and a heavy sphere were used in the experiments to study any mass effects. While seated at a table, a participant moved...

This paper presents a five-fingered underactuated prosthetic hand controlled by surface electromyographic (EMG) signals. The prosthetic hand control part is based on an EMG motion pattern classifier which combines variable learning rate (VLR) based neural network with parametric Autoregressive (AR) model and wavelet transform. This motion pattern classifier can successfully identify flexion and...

Median nerve compression is a well-known cause of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Yet, reasons why the most common idiopathic form of CTS develops in certain individuals are not well understood. To further understand the compressive mechanisms at work in CTS development, the authors used ultrasonographic imaging of the median nerve to evaluate 2 patients with CTS. Findings were compared to those ...

The occurrence of prehensile tails among only five platyrrhine genera--Cebus, Alouatta, Lagothrix, Ateles, and Brachyteles--might be interpreted as evidence that these are a closely related, possibly monophyletic group. In the absence of behavioral data, it is impossible to test whether all possess equivalent biological roles; such would lend credence to the idea that their tails evolved from a...

The trapeziometacarpal joint enables the prehensile function of the thumb. Unfortunately, this joint is vulnerable to osteoarthritis (OA) that typically affects the local shape of the trapezium. A novel, local statistical shape model is defined that employs a differentiable locality measure based on the weighted variance of point coordinates per mode. The simplicity of the function and the smoo...

Prehensile robotic grasping of a target object in clutter is challenging because, such conditions, the touches other objects, resulting to lack collision free grasp affordances. To address this problem, we propose modular reinforcement learning method which uses continuous actions totally singulate from its surrounding clutter. A high level policy selects between pushing primitives, are learned...