title: A painless and constraint-free method to estimate viscoelastic passive dynamics of limbs' joints to support diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases.
abstract: Though seldom identified, the human joints dynamics is important in the fields of medical robotics and medical research. We present a general solution to estimate in-vivo and simultaneously the passive dynamics of the human limbs' joints. It is based on the use of the multi-body description of the human body and its kinematics and dynamics computations. The linear passive joint dynamics of the shoulders and the elbows: stiffness, viscosity and friction, is estimated simultaneously using the linear least squares method. Acquisition of movements is achieved with an optical motion capture studio on one examinee during the clinical diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases. Experimental results are given and discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechano-Informatics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. gentiane@ynl.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Gentiane
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Venture
authors.forename: Yoshihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Katsu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamane
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirashima
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004548:Elasticity; D004551:Elbow Joint / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009468:Neuromuscular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014783:Viscosity