Modellierung des menschlichen Hand-Arm-Systems als virtuelles Mehrkörpermodell – Abbildung von Weichteilmassen als segmentierte Starrkörper Modeling of the Human Hand-Arm System as a Virtual Multibody..

Models of the human hand-arm system in dynamic simulations predict dynamic loads during human-machine interaction, particularly in vibration analysis. A common approach employs 30 rigid multibody models, where the upper arm, forearm, and hand are represented by a rigid bone structure with elastically attached wobbling masses to approximate soft tissue behavior. With this the problem however is, that one single rigid wobbling mass is a very abstract representation of the human soft tissues, raising the question whether introducing more than one wobbling mass bodies improve accuracy. This study investigates whether segmenting the upper arm and forearm wobbling masses into 2, 5, or 10 segments improves the model performance compared to a single wobbling mass considering the human hand-arm vibration properties. The results indicate that a higher number of wobbling mass segments reduces the model error, especially for frequencies below 200 Hz, though, the overall effect is regarded moderate. In this study five segments are regarded as a good starting point for future investigation of this concept, potentially enabling the implementation of nonlinear behavior of the human soft tissues in the arm and directional coupling.