Musculoskeletal Modelling and Simulation for Upper Limb Muscle Activities

Abstract

Musculoskeletal modeling and simulation are widely used in many areas of research including biomedical, sports, and engineering. In this study, the musculoskeletal model from an open-source platform, OpenSim software is used to simulate the upper limb muscle activities while performing the ADLs tasks using an assistive device. The upper limb musculoskeletal model was scaled down from the existing model to meet the motion requirement of the device. The device was remodeled in 3D using design software and imported into OpenSim environment and connected to the musculoskeletal model. The center of mass (COM) and inertia calculation were also conducted to adjust the model. Two experiments of ADLs task; the touching nose and moving object was conducted and simulated using the model. The simulation results showed that the muscle force values for the selected muscles (deltoid interior, pectoralis major, and teres major) were reduced during the simulated ADLs tasks when wearing the assistive device.