Human Gait: Kinematics Analysis and Mechatronic Simulation

Abstract

AbstractThis work presents a kinematic and motion planning analysis for human gait simulation using a mechatronic model. The forward and inverse kinematics for calculating either positions or rotations of the lower member segments is based on collected data from a walking person. The trajectories are reconstructed using spline interpolation from the most representative motion points during gait in order to define different parameterized positions for each articulation. Both kinematics and motion planning allow obtaining suitable data for testing the mechatronic model which is designed considering direct current motors as muscle actuators for the knee and waist joints. Cylindrical objects are used for representing the thigh and shank along with their configured mechanical properties. Finally, through the use of Matlab \(^{\circledR} SimMechanics^{\rm TM}\) toolbox, interactions and dynamics between the lower member mechanism and the ground were simulated with motion captured data and experimental data from motion planning calculations. The motion planning results suggested that statistical data lead to gait paths not suitable for reproducing on a person, as each joint position does not match the subject’s real one. The simulation results from \(SimMechanics^{\rm TM}\)model, suggested that further components have to be considered in order to obtain more accurate trajectories thus, minimizing the error when comparing the obtained path with the motion captured data.KeywordsLower memberKinematicsMotion planningMechatronicsSimulation