On the dynamic version of the minimum hand jerk criterion

This paper is concerned with the problem of trajectory formation of humanlike reaching movements. First, we review conventional criteria of optimality adopted in robotics and computational neuroscience for the prediction of reaching movements and formulate a dynamic version of the minimum hand jerk criteria, We call it a minimum driving force change criterion and check its performance for the free-space movements. Next, we test the performance of the new criterion for the movements where the human hand is geometrically constrained by the external environment, and for the movements with flexible objects. The main feature of these movements is that the hand velocity profiles are not always bell shaped. Our simulations and initial experimental results show that the minimum driving force change criterion can roughly capture this feature and, therefore, can be a reasonable candidate for modeling of humanlike reaching movements.