Impedance identification of human fingers using virtual task environment

Humans unconsciously use efficient algorithms when performing a manipulation task by their hands. Robots can be made more efficient by applying these same algorithms. In this paper, we focus on the mechanical impedance of the operator's fingers as a key parameter for describing such kind of algorithms. To overcome the difficulty of identifying the parameters in the real world task, we propose to use a virtual task environment based on the haptic virtual reality technology. Some preliminary experiments are presented to show the validity of the proposed approach.