Analysis of Fundamental Human Movement Patterns Through the Use of In-Depth Antagonistic Muscle Models

Abstract

A nonlinear eighth-order agonist-antagonist muscle model is identified, based on engineering analysis and design criteria, as the desired structure for the broad-range study of a variety of fundamental human joint movements. To complement this structure, systematic protocols, that combine material and geometrical information for each muscle, are developed to obtain the model parameter values needed for the various muscle constitutive equations. The parameters describing the four basic nonlinear relations are easy to visualize, representing the peak curve values and "shape" parameters. Elbow, knee, wrist, and ankle fiexion-extension and eye, wrist, and head rotation are simulated by this same model structure.