| Abstract: | The present paper investigates pinching movements using an index finger and a thumb actuated by redundant nonlinear digitorum muscles mimicking the configuration of human fingers. A dual-finger model with 2-d.o.f. joints for each finger and redundant nonlinear digitorum muscles is formulated to mimic the structure of human fingers. First, the kinematics and dynamics of the overall finger–object system, as well as the nonlinear muscular dynamics, are derived in accordance with the results of physiological studies. Next, a sensory-motor control law is proposed to enable stable pinching simultaneously with orientation regulation of an object. This control law includes an internal force term generated by co-construction of the redundant muscles. It is shown that the internal force term can modulate the damping factor in the joint space by its nonlinearity. Based on this effect, it is then shown by numerical simulation that our sensory-motor control law with co-contraction of each digitorum muscle makes it possible to realize pinching movements. Therefore, the pinching movements may be realized by means of a musculo-skeletal dual-finger system with the sensory-motor control law and co-contraction of redundant digitorum muscles. |
