Contact biomechanics, adhesion and friction of human skin

从数字计算的最新进展和自动化在我们社会中日益增长的重要性来看，对物理现象的深入理解的新兴需求是显而易见的，这些物理现象在日常生活中显然是简单和被忽视的。例如，设想一个机器人，它的任务是在不破坏产品的情况下拾取和放置产品，并以能够满足预期生产率的速度重复操作多次。每一个简单的动作都需要校准，而且必须用精细的细节来预测它的效果。这使得通过数字计算创建虚拟场景成为可能，用户可以在其中描述每一个可能的行动顺序，并绘制最佳性能的最佳路径。现在，让我们将这一概念扩展到与人体互动的制成品的工程设计，特别是可穿戴技术的情况。服装、绷带和其他设备的优化设计，其功能在于与人体皮肤接触，只能从人体生理的虚拟表示来实现。特别是，对于这种情况，人们需要虚拟地再现人类皮肤的生理学，这只能在以前对其生物化学机械行为的基本理解的情况下完成。这是所提出的研究的中心兴趣，其重点是粘附和摩擦现象。它将涉及皮肤物理性质的数值研究和体内实验测量，特别注意它们与粘附材料的物理和几何性质（刚度和表面粗糙度）的关系。此外，调查将考虑环境和生理条件的变化，如湿度（汗液）和温度。这些已被证明是有影响力的上述框架，因为例如皮肤通常是粘性出汗时。该模型最终将有助于开发先进的软件，用于改进可穿戴技术的设计和逼真的生命实体虚拟表示（计算机图形学）。

From the recent advances in digital computing and the growing importance of automation in our society, theemerging need for in-depth understanding of physical phenomena that are apparently simple and overlooked ineveryday life is evident. Think, for example, of a robot which task is to pick-and-place a product withoutbreaking it and repeat the operation multiple times at a pace that can satisfy the expected production rate. Eachsimple movement needs to be calibrated and one must predict the effect of it with fine detail. This gives meritto the creation of a virtual scenario via digital computing in which the user can depict every possibleconsequence of action and chart the optimal path to the best performance. Now let us extend this concept to theengineering design of manufactured goods that interact with the human body and, in particular, to the case ofwearable technology. Optimal design of clothes, bandages and other devices, which functionality lies in contactwith human skin, can only be achieved from virtual representation of the physiology of the human body. Inparticular, for this case, one needs to virtually reproduce the physiology of human skin, which can only be donewith previous fundamental understanding of its bio-chemo-mechanical behavior. This is the central interest ofthe proposed research, which focuses on the phenomena of adhesion and friction. It will involve numericalinvestigations and in-vivo experimental measurement of the physical properties of skin with particular attentionto the relation of them with the physical and geometrical properties of the adhering material (stiffness andsurface roughness). Moreover, the investigation will consider the variability of environmental andphysiological conditions such as the level of moisture (sweat) and temperature. These have proven to beinfluential in the aforementioned framework since for example skin is commonly stickier when sweating. Themodel will finally contribute to the development of advanced software for the improved design of wearabletechnology and for realistic virtual representations of living entities (computer graphics).