Measuring System for Synchronous Recording of Kinematic and Force Data during Handover Action of Human Dyads

Handover actions are joint actions between two people in which an object is handed over from a giver to a receiver. This necessitates precise coordination and synchronization of both the reach and grasp kinematics and the scaling of grip forces of the actors during the interaction. For this purpose, a measurement object is presented that records the grip forces of both actors on the instrument and allows synchronous measurement of the kinematic data of both actors and the position and orientation of the instrument in space using an optical motion capture system. Additionally, the object allows one to alter its weight in a covert fashion so that it cannot be anticipated by the actors. It is shown that the four phases of a handover, (1) reach and grasp, (2) object transport, (3) object transfer, and (4) end of handover, can be clearly identified with the described measurement system. This allows the user to measure movement kinematics and grip forces during the individual phases with high precision and therefore systematically investigate handover actions. Using exemplary data, we demonstrate in this study how movement kinematics and grip forces during a handover depend on the characteristics of the object to be measured (i.e., its size or weight).