A study of frictional property of the human fingertip using three-dimensional finite element analysis.

Since the tactile perception detects skin deformation due to the contact of an object, it is important to understand contact mechanics, especially, frictional behavior of the human fingertip. The coefficient of friction is recently modeled as a function of the applied normal load in which case the traditional Coulomb's law does not provide a description for the skin surface. When a surface is a rubber-like material, the frictional behavior follows the frictional law of the rubber-like material. Therefore, we developed a three-dimensional Finite Element model of the fingertip and analyzed frictional behavior based on the frictional law of rubber-like material. We proposed a combined technique using both experimental and Finite Element analyses in order to investigate the frictional property of the fingertip. A three-dimensional Finite Element model of the fingertip was developed using MRI images. We hypothesized a frictional equation of the critical shear stress. Squared differences between equivalent coefficient of friction of the FE analysis and the coefficient of kinetic friction of the experiment while sliding was decreased and the Finite Element analysis iterated until the error was minimized, and thus the frictional equation was determined. We obtained the equation of the critical shear stress and simulated kinetic friction of the fingertip while sliding under arbitrary normal loading condition by using the Finite Element analysis. We think this study is an appropriate method for understanding the frictional property of the human fingertip using the Finite Element analysis.