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Current potential research project
Development of Muscular scaling model
- Supervisors: Dr Paul Gunther
- Area: Ergonomics, Automotive Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
- Abstract: Human models which are used in ergonomic studies are typically based on publicly available anthropometric databases, which allow for scaling of the virtual human according to real people proportions. This is trivial for human external dimensions, as those can be easily measured. The purely musculo-skeletal human model ANYBODY (Figure 1) has no external dimensions and was developed from in vitro data of a male body which is considered to be close to 50. Percentile stature. There is no common knowledge about muscle dimensions for various external body dimensions and there is also no known method for scaling a muscle coherent to external segment dimensions. The lack of adaptability to real persons’ dimensions is forming a key shortfall of the human model for ergonomic studies. In order to overcome this issue, a general scaling capability was developed for ANYBODY (Rasmussen, J. et al: A general method for scaling musculo-skeletal models). The method is based on very general assumptions for directional scaling and body fat distribution. At the same time, the generic manner of implementing the scaling method allows the usage of user defined scaling laws. This PhD project is to research literature on the relationship between muscle/tendon and body dimensions, collect muscle and tendon data from biomechanical databases and pathology, systemize the data and develop theoretical models of muscle/tendon dimension relationship to body proportions. The models shall be implemented in ANYBODY (Anyscript) and exemplary cases are to be validated using ANYBODY modelling and EMG measurements.
- Related references: Not provided
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