Control model for dampening hand vibrations using information of internal and external coordinates

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Robotics
• Human Motor Control

Background:

• Hand vibrations can significantly impact task performance and user experience.
• Existing methods for vibration suppression often rely on passive mechanical properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate a novel control mechanism for dampening hand vibrations.
• To compare the efficacy of passive versus active vibration suppression methods.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a two-component control method: passive joint stiffness reduction and active equilibrium point adjustment using skyhook control.
• Conducted simulation and measurement experiments involving shoulder oscillation and tasks with varying loads (water vs. stones).

Main Results:

• Active suppression accurately reproduced experimental results, showing reduced arm jerk and hand trajectory amplitude compared to passive methods.
• Vibration dampening effectiveness varied with task load, with water tasks showing less vibration than stone tasks.

Conclusions:

• Human hand vibration dampening relies on active equilibrium point control, integrating external and internal body state information.
• Active control, particularly skyhook control, is more effective than solely reducing joint stiffness for vibration suppression.