Mechanical modeling of the dynamic response of the knee joint angle in the evaluation of muscle nerve response and energy consumption

Abstract

Knee joint has large loads and pressures during human movement, and understanding knee joint’s dynamic response during movement is crucial to the study of movement mechanisms and the design of effective rehabilitation programs. In order to improve the accuracy of the mechanical model in the assessment of musculo-neural response and energy consumption in the knee joint movement mechanism, the study tries to calculate the values of mass, stiffness and damping based on the ‘mass-stiffness-damping’ model combined with the Vicon system and Moxy sensors, and further analyse the musculo-neural response and energy consumption based on the measurement of the joint angle and the joint torque. The muscle nerve response and energy consumption were further analyzed. After experimental analysis, these results show that the average fitting accuracy of the knee motion at different heights reaches more than 96.5%; in comparison of the sensitivity of the knee muscle nerve response, the research model is better than the other models in terms of the stability of the response; and the change of the knee angle and angular velocity at different walking speeds leads to different degrees of energy dissipation. In summary, the mechanical model based on the “mass-stiffness-damping” model combined with the application of motion capture system and muscle oxygenation monitoring equipment provides an important method and tool for the study of knee joint angle’s dynamic response, the muscle nerve response and the evaluation of energy consumption.