Article

The redundant kinematic structure of upper extremity (UE) provides it with
increased dexterity in activities of daily living (ADL). Most functional tasks
during ADL can be implemented in various positions; however, only some routine
trajectories are employed in healthy humans. Exploring motion ability and
analyzing dexterity are clinically helpful in understanding the motion principles of the UE during ADL.
The aim of this work was to develop a qualitative and
quantitative evaluation method for unconstrained movement analysis of the UE. Ten
healthy male volunteers with no UE pathology were tested based on a kinematic
model proposed in this paper which follows the ISB recommendations. The dexterity
measure (DM) and manipulability ellipsoid (ME) were used to evaluate the
dexterity distribution and motion ability in space. Representative dexterity
trajectories and corresponding ellipsoids were determined for the ADL tasks.
The results of the study showed that there was a most dexterous posture for each
functional task. The UE movement followed an approximately optimal kinematic
performance trajectory when the hand moved in front of the thorax during ADL.
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Langue : ANGLAIS