Patent ID: 8724861

Claim:
An apparatus for studying human grasping, comprising: a six-axis force and torque sensor placed in a predefined contact point on an object, the six-axis force and torque sensor configured to simultaneously measure three components of force and three components of torque exerted by a human fingertip while grasping the object; and a fingerprint sensor attached to the six-axis force and torque sensor, the fingerprint sensor configured to produce a fingerprint image of the human fingertip; and a data acquisition device configured to read data from the six-axis force and torque sensor and the fingerprint sensor at a predetermined sampling rate, the data being used to determine a contact position of the fingertip relative to the six-axis force and torque sensor, a contact position on the fingertip, and a relative orientation between the six-axis force and torque sensor and the fingertip; wherein the contact position on the fingertip and the relative orientation between the fingertip and the force sensor are determined from a result of registration of the center point of the fingerprint image onto a pre-constructed fingerprint map.