Kinematic analysis in prehensile movement

The aim of this dissertation is to explore how humans integrate the information from different movement contexts (e. g. the non-target object in the workspace, human bimanual movement and the joint action) in order to plan and execute a prehensile movement. It deals with the following questions. First, which strategy do humans use to adjust to an increase in obstacle height and how do humans use the wrist joint to avoid a conflict between the body and an obstacle? Second, how do humans adjust their kinematics, when they switch from unimanual movement to bimanual movement and how do humans control the joints of their arms when they increase speed in a bimanual movement? Third, how do humans predict and understand another person’s action in a sequential transferring task and how do humans integrate the common task goal and the individual task goal? Does movement speed affect the integration of both goals? The experimental results offer some possible explanations for human behaviour in the different movement contexts and suggest further studies of the underlying neuronal mechanisms. The analysis of the data can also be used to establish some intelligent algorithms that could improve robotic control.