Design and vibrational characterisation of a novel instrumented handle for grip force measurement.

The dynamic modelling of the hand-transmitted vibration is usually performed using special handles. These are designed for measuring grip force and typically follows the example reported in ISO 10819. Limitations in the use of such handle are: high complexity of the structure, thermal drift of strain gage, dependence of the grip force to the position of hand and the total weight. The aim of this paper is to report on the design and dynamic characterisation of an instrumented handle for the measurement of the grip force. The handle is designed in order have a low weight and to be compliant with ISO-10819 and ISO-15230. The handle also allow the measurement of transmissibility with a laser Doppler vibrometer directly on the hand surface (see N Paone and L Scalise, IMAC 2006). The transducers used are 2 miniature ring load cell contained inside the handle with almost no thermal drift. The paper is also focusing on the handle characterisation by performing experimental and numerical analysis via mobility measurements. The test demonstrated that the handle has a working frequency band of :0 - 2000 Hz. Calibration test performed have reported for the grip force a measurement range of 400 N and uncertainty of 0.12 % f.s.