title: Towards understanding the workspace of human limbs.
abstract: Significant attention in recent years has been given towards obtaining a better understanding of human joint ranges, measurement, and functionality, especially in conjunction with commands issued by the central nervous system. Studies of those commands often include computer algorithms to describe path trajectories. These are typically in "open-form" with specific descriptions of motions, but not "closed form" mathematical solutions of the full range of possibilities. This paper proposes a rigorous "closed form" kinematic formulation to model human limbs, understand their workspace (also called the reach envelope), and delineate barriers therein where a path becomes difficult or impossible owing to physical constraints. The novel ability to visualize barriers in the workspace emphasizes the power of these closed form equations. Moreover, this formulation takes into account joint limits in terms of ranges of motion and identifies barriers therein where a person is required to attain a different posture. Examples include the workspaces of a typical forearm and a typical finger. The wrist's range of motion is used to illustrate the visualization of the progress in the functionality of a wrist undergoing rehabilitation.
authors.affiliation: Virtual Soldier Research Programme, Center for Computer-Aided Design, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, The University of Iowa, 116 Engineering Research Facility, Iowa City, IA 52242-1000, USA.
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abdel-Malek
authors.forename: Jingzhou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.forename: Emad
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tanbour
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D014955:Wrist Joint / Q000502:physiology