Accuracy improvement of pinching force augmentation by exoskeleton

This paper proposes a support structure for a wearer to precisely control a pinching force with the support of an exoskeleton, which augments human pinching force based on a surface electromyography. A human hand should make a direct contact with the environment for the best use of human intelligence because a tactile sensory feedback from the hand is very important information for a human to handle it accurately and dexterously. However the direct contact may bring excessive force on the human finger when the exoskeleton thrusts the finger into the environment with strong force. This paper proposes the best support structure, type D, by investigating accuracy of a human pinching force with four different types of exoskeletons. They allow the finger to directly contact the environment but force transfer paths from the exoskeleton to the environment are different in each other. Through pilot experiments, the exoskeleton that supports more precise force control and safer manipulation is proposed.