Citation

Suissa D, Günther M, Shapiro A, Melzer I, Schmitt S. Appl. Bionics Biomech. 2018; 2018: e4767624.

Affiliation

Stuttgart Centre for Simulation Sciences (SC SimTech), University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 7a, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Hindawi Publishing)

DOI

10.1155/2018/4767624

PMID

29853995

PMCID

PMC5954963

Abstract

Understanding human balance is a key issue in many research areas. One goal is to suggest analytical models for the human balance. Specifically, we are interested in the stability of a subject when a lateral perturbation is being applied. Therefore, we conducted an experiment, laterally perturbing five subjects on a mobile platform. We observed that the recorded motion is divided into two parts. The legs act together as a first, the head-arms-trunk segment as a second rigid body with pelvis, and the ankle as hinge joints. Hence, we suggest using a planar double-inverted pendulum model for the analysis. We try to reproduce the human reaction utilizing torque control, applied at the ankle and pelvis. The fitting was realized by least square and nonlinear unconstrained optimization on training sets. Our model is not only able to fit to the human reaction, but also to predict it on test sets. We were able to extract and review key features of balance, like torque coupling and delays as outcomes of the aforementioned optimization process. Furthermore, the delays are well within the ranges typically for such compensatory motions, composed of reflex and higher level motor control.

Language: en