Constant angular velocity of the wrist during the lifting of a sphere

Abstract

The primary objective of the experiments was to investigate the wrist motion of a person while they were carrying out a prehensile task from a clinical hand function test. A six-camera movement system was used to observe the wrist motion of 10 participants. A very light sphere and a heavy sphere were used in the experiments to study any mass effects. While seated at a table, a participant moved a sphere over a small obstacle using their dominant hand. The participants were observed to move their wrist at a constant angular velocity. This phenomenon has not been reported previously. Theoretically, the muscles of the wrist provide an impulse of force at the start of the rotation while the forearm maintains a constant vertical force on a sphere. Light–heavy mean differences for the velocities, absolute velocities, angles and times taken showed no significant differences (p = 0.05).

Keywords:

• Wrist
• Movement
• Constant velocity
• Projectile
• SHAP

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Life Sciences Interface Forum at the University of Southampton for their financial support of the research and the participants for their enthusiasm and patience.