The GRASP Taxonomy of Human Grasp Types

TLDR

The study synthesizes existing human grasp taxonomies into a single new taxonomy, the GRASP Taxonomy, by extracting and systematically arranging the largest set of referenced grasp types. The authors focus on static, stable one‑hand grasps and organize them in the taxonomy by opposition type, virtual finger assignments, power/precision/intermediate classification, and thumb position. The resulting GRASP taxonomy contains 33 distinct grasp types—potentially reducible to 17 general types—and offers a unified terminology useful for human‑computer interaction and tangible user interfaces.

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze and compare existing human grasp taxonomies and synthesize them into a single new taxonomy (dubbed "The GRASP Taxonomy" after the GRASP project funded by the European Commission). We consider only static and stable grasps performed by one hand. The goal is to extract the largest set of different grasps that were referenced in the literature and arrange them in a systematic way. The taxonomy provides a common terminology to define human hand configurations and is important in many domains such as human-computer interaction and tangible user interfaces where an understanding of the human is basis for a proper interface. Overall, 33 different grasp types are found and arranged into the GRASP taxonomy. Within the taxonomy, grasps are arranged according to 1) opposition type, 2) the virtual finger assignments, 3) type in terms of power, precision, or intermediate grasp, and 4) the position of the thumb. The resulting taxonomy incorporates all grasps found in the reviewed taxonomies that complied with the grasp definition. We also show that due to the nature of the classification, the 33 grasp types might be reduced to a set of 17 more general grasps if only the hand configuration is considered without the object shape/size.