• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2009

Recently, importance of the rehabilitation of hand pathologies as well as the development of high-technology hand robot has been increased. The biomechanical model of hand is indispensable due to the difficulty of direct measurement of muscle forces and joint forces in hands. In this study, a three-dimensional biomechanical model of four fingers including three joints and ten muscles in each finger was developed and a mathematical relationship between neural commands and finger forces which represents the enslaving effect and the force deficit effect was proposed. When pressing a plate under the flexed posture, the muscle forces and the joint forces were predicted by the optimization technique. The results showed that the major activated muscles were flexion muscles (flexor digitorum profundus, radial interosseous, and ulnar interosseous). In addition, it was found that the antagonistic muscles were also activated rather than the previous models, which is more realistic phenomenon. The present model has considered the interaction among fingers, thus can be more powerful while developing a robot hand that can totally control the multiple fingers like human.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.413-423
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• 2016

Objective:The aims of this study are to understand the effects of task (pushing, pulling, and clockwise and counter clockwise twisting) direction on the maximal output and their grip forces and to explore the relationship between the maximal output and the grip forces. Background: Knowing the normative maximal grip force is not enough to design a good hand tool. The industrial designers should understand the required grip forces in various motions toward a specific direction to make an effective and efficient hand tool. Method: Eighteen healthy volunteers participated in the series of isometric maximal output force tests. A custom-made force measuring equipment collected the output and the grip forces for three seconds. Force measurements along the vertical, coronal and sagittal axes were randomly repeated three times. Results: The pulling was strongest and the pushing was weakest in all directions. The effect of motion on the output forces varied in different directions. The corresponding grip force increased in the order of pushing, pulling, clockwise twisting, and counter clockwise twisting in all directions. The maximal output and their grip forces were highly correlated but the relationship was affected by motion and direction. The regression coefficient was greatest in pulling and smallest in clockwise twisting. Conclusion: The effect of motion on the output forces varied in different directions. The maximal output and their grip forces were correlated but the relationship was affected by motion and direction. Application: Findings of this study can be valuable information for industrial designers to develop more productive hand tools and work stations to help preventing the musculoskeletal disorders at work.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.15 no.4 s.97
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• pp.404-411
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• 2005

To increase accurateness and reliability of the evaluation of power tool vibration transmitted to an operator, it is necessary to measure the grip and feed forces during the measurement of hand-transmitted vibration. In the study a system was invented to measure the vibration and the grip and/or feed force, which consists of a measurement handle and a PC with a data acquisition system and the corresponding software. Strain gauges and an accelerometer were mounted on the handle surface for the simultaneous measurement of the forces and the vibration. The program in the system makes it possible to monitor the grip and feed force during the tool operation so that the operator keeps the applying forces within the pre-determined range. Investigating the vibration total values, frequency-weighted root-mean-square accelerations at the handle, obtained in repetition for each power tool with control of the grip and feed force showed more consistency than those measured without force control. By using the system the experimenter can reduce random error of the measured vibration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.689-694
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• 2004

To increase accurateness and reliability of the evaluation of power tool vibration transmitted to an operator, it is necessary to measure grip and feed forces during the measurement of hand-transmitted vibration. In the study a system was invented to measure the vibration and the grip and/or feed force, which consists of a measurement handle and a PC with data acquisition system and the software. Strain gauges and an accelerometer were mounted on the handle for the simultaneous measurement of the forces and the vibration. The program in the system makes it possible to monitor the grip and feed force during the tool operation so that the operator keeps the applying forces within the pre-determined range. Investigating the vibration total values, frequency-weighted root mean square accelerations at the handle, obtained at various conditions with control of the grip and feed force showed more consistency than those measured without force control. By using the system the experimenter can reduce uncertainty of the measured vibration.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.371-378
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• 2014

Manual materials handling tasks are the main risk factors for the work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Many assistant tools for manual materials handling are being used in various kind of industries. One of them is a 4-wheeled cart which is widely used in manufacturing factories, hospitals, etc. The major force required to control the 4-wheeled cart is pushing and pulling. There are two types of handles being used for the 4-wheeled cart : vertical type (two vertical handles), and horizontal type (one horizontal handle). This study tried to investigate the pushing forces and subjective discomforts (hand/writst, shoulder, low back, and overall) of the two handle types with different handle height and distance conditions. Twelve healthy male students (mean age = 23.4 years) participated in the experiment. The independent variables were handle angle (horizontal, vertical), handle height (low, medium, high), and handle distance (narrow, medium, wide). The full factorial design was used for the experiment and the maximum pushing forces were measured in 18 different conditions ($2{\times}3{\times}3$). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure was conducted to test the effects of the independent variables on the pushing force and discomfort levels. Handle height and angle were found to be the critical design factors that affect the maximal pushing forces and subjective discomfort. In the middle height, subjects exerted higher pushing forces, and experience lower discomfort levels compared to the high, and low height. There was no statistical influence of the handle distance to the pushing forces and subjective discomfort levels. It was found out that the effects of the handle angle (horizontal and vertical) on both pushing force and subjective discomfort were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The vertical handle revealed higher pushing force and lower discomfort level than the horizontal handle. The reason for that was thought to be the different postures of the hand when grasping the handles. The horizontal handle induced pronaton of the hand and made hand posture more deviated from the neutral position.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2008

In order to evaluate performance of anti-vibration gloves, it is necessary to measure the transmitted vibration to the hand and the applied forces at the same time while gripping the vibrating handle. In the study a system was developed to measure both the vibration and the forces. The system consists of a measurement handle with eight strain gauges and two accelerometers and a PC-based system with a software for signal processing, evaluation of the hand-transmitted vibration and for control of applied forces in the pre-determined range. The handle was installed on the vibration shaker which is strong enough so as not to be affected by dynamic coupling with the hand-arm. Whole procedure of ISO 10819:1996 to determine the vibration transmissibility of anti-vibration gloves was programmed into the system. As an example of the application, three subjects joined the test to get vibration transmissibilities of 9 anti-vibration gloves where each glove was tested twice a subject. Average and standard deviation of the corrected vibration transmissibility were also calculated. All tested gloves fulfilled criterion for M-spectrum($\overline{TR_M}$<1.0), but one glove fulfilled criterion for H-spectrum($\overline{TR_H}$<6.0),

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.3-9
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• 1982

This study demonstrates that certain personal and task factors can be modelled to predict slip potential as well as back loadings durings dynamic pushing and pulling tasks. Such tasks are com- mon to many manual material handling jobs in industry and the results of this work will hopefully be of use in improved job design. The objective of this research is to formulate and validate a dynamic biomechanical model of pushing and pulling a cart. For pushing and pulling tasks, the model can : (1) estimate foot forces for given hand forces, and (2) estimate tors muscle and vertabral column loadings. In order to formulate and validate the model, experiments involving pushing and pulling of a cart were performed. These experiments produced data of the following type : (1) dynamic forces on the feet, (2) hand forces required to move the cart, (3) body motions as functions of various cart motion and (4) back muscle actions. The model was validated using three different methods; precision was tested using correlation between predicted and measured results, accuracy using standard error between of predicted and measured results, and intuitive comparison of predicted results using sensitivity analyses.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

Individual finger/total grip forces, and subjective preferences for various individual finger grip spans (i.e., four fingers had identical grip spans or different grip spans) were evaluated by using an "Adjustable Multi-Finger Force Measurement (MFFM) System". In this study, three grip spans were defined as follows: a 'favorite grip span' which is the span with the highest subjective preference; a 'maximum grip span' which is the span with the highest total grip force; a 'maximum finger grip span' which is a set of four grip spans that had maximum finger grip forces associated with the index, middle, ring, and little fingers, respectively. Ten males were recruited from university population for this study. In experiment I, each participant tested the maximum grip force with five grip spans (45 to 65mm) to investigate grip forces and subjective preferences for three types of grip spans. Results showed that subjective preferences for grip spans were not coincidence with the performance of total grip forces. It was noted that the 'favorite grip span' represented the lowest total grip force, whereas the 'maximum finger grip span' showed the lowest subjective preferences. The individual finger forces and the average percentage contribution to the total finger force were also investigated in this study. The findings of this study might be valuable information for designing ergonomics hand-tools to reduce finger/hand stress as well as to improve tool users' preferences and performance.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.12-19
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• 2003

This paper describes the design of a robot's hand with two fingers for stably grasping an unknown object, and the development of a 3-axis force sensor for which is necessary to constructing the robot's fingers. In order to safely grasp an unknown object using the robot's fingers, they should measure the forces in the gripping and in the gravity directions, and control the measured forces. The 3-axis force sensor should be used for accurately measuring the weight of an unknown object in the gravity direction. Thus, in this paper, the robot's hand with two fingers for stably grasping an unknown object is designed, and the 3-axis force sensor is newly modeled and fabricated using several parallel-plate beams.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.361-370
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• 2016

Objective:The aim of this study is to evaluate contributions of individual finger forces associated with various levels of submaximal voluntary contraction tasks. Background: Although many researches for individual finger force have been conducted, most of the studies mainly focus on the maximal voluntary contraction. However, Information concerning individual finger forces during submaximal voluntary contraction is also very important for developing biomechanical models and for designing hand tools, work equipment, hand prostheses and robotic hands. Due to these reasons, studies on the contribution of individual finger force in submaximal grip force exertions should be fully considered. Method: A total of 60 healthy adults without any musculoskeletal disorders in the upper arms participated in this study. The young group (mean: 23.7 yrs) consisted of 30 healthy adults (15 males and 15 females), and the elderly group (mean: 75.2 yrs) was also composed of 30 participants (15 males and 15 females). A multi-Finger Force Measurement (MFFM) System developed by Kim and Kong (2008) was applied in order to measure total grip strength and individual finger forces. The participants were asked to exert a grip force attempting to minimize the difference between the target force and their exerted force for eight different target forces (5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, and 75% MVCs). These target forces based on the maximum voluntary contraction, which were obtained from each participant, were randomly assigned in this study. Results: The contributions of middle and ring fingers to the total grip force represented an increasing trend as the target force level increased. On the other hand, the contributions of index and little fingers showed a decreasing trend as the target force level increased. In particular, Index finger exerted the largest contribution to the total grip force, followed by middle, ring and little fingers in the case of the smallest target force level (5% MVC), whereas middle finger showed the largest contribution, followed by ring, index and little fingers at the largest target force levels (65 and 75% MVCs). Conclusion: Each individual finger showed a different contribution pattern to the grip force exertion. As the target force level increase from 5 to 75% MVC, the contributions of middle and ring fingers showed an increasing trend, whereas the contributions of index and little fingers represented a decreasing trend in this study. Application: The results of this study can be useful information when designing robotic hands, hand tools and work equipment. Such information would be also useful when abnormal hand functions are evaluated.