Correcting the deficits in jaw movements have often been ignored in assessment and treatment of speech disorders. A robotic simulation is being developed to facilitate Speech Language Pathologists to demonstrate the movement of jaw, tongue and teeth during production of speech sounds, as a part of a larger study. Profiling of jaw movement is an important aspect of articulatory simulation. The present study attempts to develop a simple and efficient technique for deriving the jaw parameters and using them to simulate jaw movements through inverse kinematics.

Three Kannada speaking male participants in the age range of 26 to 33 years were instructed to produce selected speech sounds. The image of the final position of the jaw during production of each speech sound was recorded through CT scan and video camera. Angle of ramus and angle of body of mandible were simulated through inverse kinematics using RoboAnalyzer software. The variables for inverse kinematics were derived through kinematic analysis. The Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) parameters required for kinematic analysis were obtained from still image. Angles simulated were compared with the angles obtained from CT scan images. No significant difference was observed.