Development of a feasible finite element digital human hand model

The nature of the human hand and complex surfaces of the grasped objects usually prevent the direct measurements of displacements, stresses, strains, forces, and contact pressure on various anatomical structures in the hand, which would be useful in the field of biomechanics, haptics, ergonomics, etc. This could be mitigated with simulations, especially the finite element model (FEM), where wide array of results is obtainable. Therefore, we developed a finite element digital human hand model (FE-DHHM), which allows simultaneous studying of biomechanics of human hand movement and grasping, analyses of biological tissue deformations, internal stresses, contact pressures, and effects of vibration on the hand. Research methods mainly comprised accurate determination of the human hand FEM geometry using medical imaging, reconstruction of a three-dimensional model in reverse engineering software and correct construction of the FEM in Abaqus software. The developed FE-DHHM has been coupled to motion capture system where joint angles of hand movements from real-life grasping scenarios have been fed to the model. Performed simulations have shown that the FE-DHHM is numerically feasible and stable and it shows accurate biomechanical movement and provide accurate results in terms of contact area.