Reproducibility and variability of the cost functions reconstructed from experimental recordings in multifinger prehension

The study examines whether the cost functions reconstructed from experimental recordings are reproducible over time. Participants repeated the trials on three days. By following Analytical Inverse Optimization procedures, the cost functions of finger forces were reconstructed for each day. The cost functions were found to be reproducible over time: application of a cost function C(i) to the data of Day j (i≠j) resulted in smaller deviations from the experimental observations than using other commonly used cost functions. Other findings are: (a) the 2nd order coefficients of the cost function showed negative linear relations with finger force magnitudes; (b) the finger forces were distributed on a 2-dimensional plane in the 4-dimensional finger force space for all subjects and all testing sessions; (c) the data agreed well with the principle of superposition, i.e. the action of object prehension can be decoupled into the control of rotational equilibrium and slipping prevention.