Estimation of upper limb muscle forces by a biomechanical simulation model

The purpose of this study was to quantify individual upper limb muscle forces during planar arm movements by a biomechanical simulation model. This study includes two steps. First, a multi-linkage rigid body biomechanical simulation model was developed. The simulation model was developed to create equations of motion for the body segments and simulate the directional dependent characteristic of joint muscle forces. Second, human subjects were recruited to perform planar arm reaching task in different directions. Kinematic data collected by a motion capture system was used as the input to the simulation model. The simulation results were further interpreted and compared with previous findings. Potential application of this model to biomedical robotics design was also discussed.