Hand and Wrist Biomechanics

Dear Colleagues,

The high complexity of the hand enables humans to carry out a huge variety of activities providing them with functional independence. Deep knowledge of healthy hand behavior, from grasping biomechanics to complex manipulation in daily life activities, both from its kinematics and from muscle activation comprehension, is a challenging field. This knowledge is of vital importance in fields such as robotics and prosthesics, especially in trying to imitate the behavior of the human hand, one of the most difficult parts of the human body to imitate. It is also key in ergonomics for product design, as well as for improving work environments. Designs must consider hand and wrist healthy operating parameters to avoid forcing the human mechanism and thus avert injuries. In addition, many injuries and pathologies affecting the hand and wrist cause each year a large number of people to suffer from disabilities preventing them from a fully functional life. Knowing the biomechanical limitations produced by the diseases is of vital importance in clinical making decisions and in rehabilitation treatments.

This Special Issue invites biomechanical researchers to provide contributions on: (i) studies that improve the biomechanical understanding of the healthy human hand and wrist; and (ii) studies applied in different fields (robotics, health, ergonomics) that use biomechanical parameters of the healthy human hand and wrist as a gold standard: to improve humanoid robotic hands and hand prostheses; to be checked against same parameters in certain pathologies for the better understanding of the functional limitations that they produce; or in ergonomic designs of assistive products or assistive hand exoskeletons for people with disabilities, as well as hand exoskeletons for rehabilitation or to assist improving the workplace.

Dr. Verónica Gracia-Ibáñez
Dr. Néstor José Jarque-Bou
Prof. Dr. Margarita Vergara
Guest Editors

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