Reconstruction of human swing leg motion with passive biarticular muscle models.
Template models, which are utilized to demonstrate general aspects in human locomotion, mostly investigate stance leg operation. The goal of this paper is presenting a new conceptual walking model benefiting from swing leg dynamics. Considering a double pendulum equipped with combinations of biarticular springs for the swing leg beside spring-mass (SLIP) model for the stance leg, a novel SLIP-based model, is proposed to explain human-like leg behavior in walking. The action of biarticular muscles in swing leg motion helps represent human walking features, like leg retraction, ground reaction force and generating symmetric walking patterns, in simulations. In order to stabilize the motion by the proposed passive structure, swing leg biarticular muscle parameters such as lever arm ratios, stiffnesses and rest lengths need to be properly adjusted. Comparison of simulation results with human experiments shows the ability of the proposed model in replicating kinematic and kinetic behavior of both stance and swing legs as well as biarticular thigh muscle force of the swing leg. This substantiates the important functional role of biarticular muscles in leg swing.
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran; Lauflabor Locomotion Laboratory, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. Electronic address: sharbafi@sport.tu-darmstadt.de.
Maziar
M
Ahmad Sharbafi
Lauflabor Locomotion Laboratory, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. Electronic address: aidamnr@sport.tu-darmstadt.de.
Aida
A
Mohammadi Nejad Rashty
Department of Motion Science at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany. Electronic address: christian.rode@uni-jena.de.
Christian
C
Rode
Lauflabor Locomotion Laboratory, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. Electronic address: seyfarth@sport.tu-darmstadt.de.
Andre
A
Seyfarth
D000465:Algorithms; D001132:Arm / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D007866:Leg / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D013848:Thigh / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology
Biarticular muscles; Bipedal walking; Conceptual models; Swing leg adjustment