Ground reaction force prediction for rehabilitation robotics and biomechanics

Biomechanics is rapidly increasing research
area which aims to increase the fidelity and
complexity of the models to better reflect real
world occurrences accurately. As such, the use
of motion capture devices to drive the position
of a human model have become extremely popular. This information can be used for a variety of applications including rehabilitation, human movement studies and virtual reality. Motion capture systems are only capable of recording kinematics from human motion and subsequently are insufficient for detailed analysis involving dynamics for uses in fields such as rehabilitation robotics. Therefore, this paper looks
at prediction of ground reaction forces based
upon kinematics data acquired through motion capture and musculo-skeletal mass-inertia
properties. For this purpose, the dynamic effects of the human motion on the ground reaction force are studied using the sum of forces
acting upon each segment of the body. The
results of these calculations is then compared
to measured ground reaction forces showing a
high level of accuracy from the estimated values ground reaction forces. Such results could
be used in subsequent research for rehabilitation robotics for better understanding of human
performance in a cost-effective manner.