Gyroscope Sensor Based In Vivo Finger Axes of Rotation Identification Using Screw Displacement

Abstract

This paper presents a low-cost, efficient, and portable in vivo method for identifying axes of rotation of the proximal interphalangeal and distal interphalangeal joints in an index finger. The approach is associated with the screw displacement representation of rigid body motion. Using the matrix exponential method, a detailed derivation of general spatial displacement of a rigid body in the form of screw displacement including the Rodrigues’ formulae for rotation is presented. Then, based on a gyroscope sensor, a test framework for determining axes of rotation of finger joints is established, and experiments on finding the directions of joint axes of the PIP and DIP joints are conducted. The results obtained highly agree with those presented in literature through traditional but complex methods.