A physiology based inverse dynamic analysis of human gait: potential and perspectives

Abstract

One approach to compute the musculotendon forces that underlie human motion is to combine an inverse dynamic analysis with a static optimisation procedure. Although computationally efficient, this classical inverse approach fails to incorporate constraints imposed by muscle physiology.

The present paper reports on a physiological inverse approach (PIA) that combines an inverse dynamic analysis with a dynamic optimisation procedure. This allows the incorporation of a full description of muscle activation and contraction dynamics, without loss of computational efficiency.

A comparison of muscle excitations and MT-forces predicted by the classical and the PIA is presented for normal and pathological gait. Inclusion of muscle physiology primarily affects the rate of active muscle force build-up and decay and allows the estimation of passive muscle force. Consequently, it influences the onset and cessation of the predicted muscle excitations as well as the level of co-contraction.

Keywords:

• biomechanics
• motion analysis
• inverse dynamics
• gait

Acknowledgements

F. De Groote and G. Pipeleers are Research Assistants of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen). I. Jonkers and B. Demeuelenaere are Postdoctoral Fellows of the Research Foundation – Flanders. I. Jonkers receives additional funding from the Belgian Educational Foundation and the Koning Boudewijn Fonds. The support of the following projects is gratefully acknowledged: project G.0462.05 of the Research Foundation – Flanders, K.U. Leuvens Interdisciplinary Research Program IDO/07/12 and K.U. Leuven-BOF EF/05/006 Center-of-Excellence Optimisation in Engineering. The support of VA RR&D Merit Review Grant No. B2792RT is acknowledged. The scientific responsibility remains with its authors.