To read this content please select one of the options below:

Glove-based virtual hand grasping for virtual mechanical assembly

JingRong Li (School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, GuangZhou, China)
YuHua Xu (School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, GuangZhou, China)
JianLong Ni (School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, GuangZhou, China)
QingHui Wang (School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, GuangZhou, China)

Assembly Automation

ISSN: 0144-5154

Article publication date: 5 September 2016

817

Abstract

Purpose

Hand gesture-based interaction can provide far more intuitive, natural and immersive feelings for users to manipulate 3D objects for virtual assembly (VA). A mechanical assembly consists of mostly general-purpose machine elements or mechanical parts that can be defined into four types based on their geometric features and functionalities. For different types of machine elements, engineers formulate corresponding grasping gestures based on their domain knowledge or customs for ease of assembly. Therefore, this paper aims to support a virtual hand to assemble mechanical parts.

Design/methodology/approach

It proposes a novel glove-based virtual hand grasping approach for virtual mechanical assembly. The kinematic model of virtual hand is set up first by analyzing the hand structure and possible movements, and then four types of grasping gestures are defined with joint angles of fingers for connectors and three types of parts, respectively. The recognition of virtual hand grasping is developed based on collision detection and gesture matching. Moreover, stable grasping conditions are discussed.

Findings

A prototype system is designed and developed to implement the proposed approach. The case study on VA of a two-stage gear reducer demonstrates the functionality of the system. From the users’ feedback, it is found that more natural and stable hand grasping interaction for VA of mechanical parts can be achieved.

Originality/value

It proposes a novel glove-based virtual hand grasping approach for virtual mechanical assembly.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Nature Science Foundation of China under Grant 51575192; the Science & Technology Research Program of Guangdong [grant number 2015A030401028].

Citation

Li, J., Xu, Y., Ni, J. and Wang, Q. (2016), "Glove-based virtual hand grasping for virtual mechanical assembly", Assembly Automation, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 349-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/AA-01-2016-002

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles