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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2011
This study develops a kinematic/kinetic model to evaluate the effect of different handle angles on wrist loading during lifting task. An imaged-based motion analysis system is used to study the movement pattern, force and moment of the wrist joint among nine different handle angles. Six CCD cameras were used to record 3-D trajectories of limb-mounted markers based on the laboratory coordination system as defined by an 8-marker cube. Euler angles are used to describe the orientation of a distal segment reference frame relative to a proximal segment reference frame. Each segment of the upper extremities is regarded as a uniform rigid body with six degrees of freedom. The resultant loading of the wrist joints was determined using an inverse dynamic procedure.
This study indicates that tool handles can be designed or selected to reduce manual loading and the potential for injury during tool use. The mean curve of joint force and moment provided consultations and understandings of the wrist loading during lifting task. In this study, handles that kept the wrist joints in a dorsiflexed and radial deviated position, showed significant reduction in stresses around the surrounding soft tissue.