• GRASPING: Holding an object (it moves with me but is relatively still)
  • MANIPULATION: Hold an object and control its trajectory (specific to the object)

We can see:

  • Manipulation → active motion
  • Grasping → passive motion

→ To manipulate objects humans have specifically developed the thumb

  • Really important when talking about manipulation.

There are 2 kinds of manipulation:


Brain prospective

From our brain prospective when we grasp an object (power grasp) it does not cast anything (it doesn’t think about the hand receptors).

  • For power grasping we do have control over the object in our hand, but it is not accurate, tho it is fast to process (for our brain).
  • For in-hand manipulation, like writing with a pen we use 3 contact point (more generally a small number of contact points) and we need to control each of them very well. (While for power grasping we have many contact point but no need to control them)