Thigh Skin Strain Model for Human Gait Movement

Abstract

In order to enrich the signal source of the human gait events recognition, a three-layer bone-muscle-skin thigh model is established to analyze the relation between the thigh skin strain and the human gait movement in this paper. Firstly, the positions of the skin vertices are obtained by simulation of the inverse kinematics of the musculoskeletal system. Secondly, the velocities and accelerations of the skin vertices are updated through the velocity Verlet integration method. Finally the thigh skin surface strain are calculated by constant strain triangular elements. The simulation results show that when the knee joint angle changes from −70° to 0° during knee extension, there is a strong linear correlation between the thigh skin strain in the y direction of most areas and the knee joint angle. The thigh skin strain has a close relationship with the human gait cycle, and can be used as a carrier signal for the recognition of human lower limb gait events.