Muscle Strengths and Musculoskeletal Geometry of the Upper Limb

1979 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
A A Amis ◽  
D Dowson ◽  
V Wright

A survey of past literature has shown that there is a lack of reliable data for use in prediction of joint forces in the upper limb although this is desirable when developing joint replacements. Upper limb geometry has been analysed, leading to muscle moment arm data at the wrist and elbow. The variation of these moment arms during elbow flexion has also been examined. Analysis of the dimensions of muscles has enabled their relative strengths to be predicted, based on their ‘physiological cross-sections’. When used in conjuction with published emg data, this information will enable elbow and wrist joint forces to be estimated more realistically than has previously been possible.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (24) ◽  
pp. 8303
Author(s):  
Jia-Wen Yam ◽  
Jing-Wen Pan ◽  
Pui-Wah Kong

To better understand the biomechanics of para-table tennis players, this study compared the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joint kinematics among able-bodied (AB) and wheelchair players in different classifications. Nineteen participants (AB, n = 9; classification 1 (C1), n = 3; C2, n = 3; C3, n = 4) executed 10 forehand and backhand topspin drives. Shoulder abduction/adduction, elbow flexion/extension, wrist extension/flexion, respective range of motion (ROM), and joint patterns were obtained using inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. The results showed clear differences in upper limb kinematics between the able-bodied and wheelchair players, especially in the elbow and wrist. For the para-players, noticeable variations in techniques were also observed among the different disability classes. In conclusion, wheelchair players likely adopted distinct movement strategies compared to AB to compensate for their physical impairments and functional limitations. Hence, traditional table tennis programs targeting skills and techniques for able-bodied players are unsuitable for para-players. Future work can investigate how best to customize training programs and to optimize movement strategies for para-players with varied types and degrees of impairment.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise E. Wood ◽  
Sharon Dixon ◽  
Chris Grant ◽  
Neil Armstrong

The aim of this study was to examine elbow flexion torque, muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), and leverage in boys and girls. Thirty-eight prepubertal children (9.6 ± 0.3 years) volunteered to participate. All performed isometric flexion actions at 10°, 50°, and 90° of elbow flexion. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess elbow flexor (EF) muscle CSA and brachialis moment arm lengths. No significant gender differences were observed for any of the variables studied. EF CSA was directly proportional to isometric torque at 50° and 90°. CSA explained between 47% and 57% of torque variance. Moment arm estimates explained 19% of the variance in isometric torque at 90°. These baseline data contribute to our understanding of factors influencing strength variation during childhood.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Smith ◽  
Edward E. Brown

This work examines two different types of myoelectric control schemes for the purpose of rehabilitation robot applications. The first is a commonly used technique based on a Gaussian classifier. It is implemented in real time for healthy subjects in addition to a subject with Central Cord Syndrome (CCS). The myoelectric control scheme is used to control three degrees of freedom (DOF) on a robot manipulator which corresponded to the robot's elbow joint, wrist joint, and gripper. The classes of motion controlled include elbow flexion and extension, wrist pronation and supination, hand grasping and releasing, and rest. Healthy subjects were able to achieve 90% accuracy. Single DOF controllers were first tested on the subject with CCS and he achieved 100%, 96%, and 85% accuracy for the elbow, gripper, and wrist controllers respectively. Secondly, he was able to control the three DOF controller at 68% accuracy. The potential applications for this scheme are rehabilitation and teleoperation. To overcome limitations in the pattern recognition based scheme, a second myoelectric control scheme is also presented which is trained using electromyographic (EMG) data derived from natural reaching motions in the sagittal plane. This second scheme is based on a time delayed neural network (TDNN) which has the ability to control multiple DOF at once. The controller tracked a subject's elbow and shoulder joints in the sagittal plane. Results showed an average error of 19° for the two joints. This myoelectric control scheme has the potential of being used in the development of exoskeleton and orthotic rehabilitation applications.


Author(s):  
Yingxin Qiu ◽  
Keerthana Murali ◽  
Jun Ueda ◽  
Atsushi Okabe ◽  
Dalong Gao

This paper reports the variability in muscle recruitment strategies among individuals who operate a non-powered lifting device for general assembly (GA) tasks. Support vector machine (SVM) was applied to the classification of motion states of operators using electromyography (EMG) signals collected from a total of 15 upper limb, lower limb, shoulder, and torso muscles. By comparing the classification performance and muscle activity features, variability in muscle recruitment strategy was observed from lower limb and torso muscles, while the recruitment strategies of upper limb and shoulder muscles were relatively consistent across subjects. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to identify key muscles that are highly correlated with body movements. Selected muscles at the wrist joint, ankle joint and scapula are considered to have greater significance in characterizing the muscle recruitment strategies than other investigated muscles. PCA loading factors also indicate the existence of body motion redundancy during typical pick-and-place tasks.


2022 ◽  
pp. 107754632110518
Author(s):  
Sarah Gebai ◽  
Gwendal Cumunel ◽  
Mohammad Hammoud ◽  
Gilles Foret ◽  
Emmanuel Roze ◽  
...  

Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are proposed as a solution to reduce the involuntary tremor at the upper limb of a patient with postural tremor. The upper limb is modeled as a three-degrees-of-freedom rotating system in the vertical plane, with a flexion-extension motion at the joints. The measured extensor carpi radialis signal of a patient is used to excite the dynamic model. We propose a numerical methodology to optimize the parameters of the TMDs in the frequency domain combined with the response in the time domain. The objective function for the optimization of the dynamic problem is the maximum angular displacement of the wrist joint. The optimal stiffness and damping of the TMDs are obtained by satisfying the minimization of the selected objective function. The considered passive absorber is a cantilever beam–like TMD, whose length, beam cross-sectional diameter, and mass position reflect its stiffness for a chosen additional mass. A parametric study of the TMD is conducted to evaluate the effect of the TMD position along the hand segment, the number of TMDs, and the total mass of TMDs. The sensitivity of the TMD to a decrease of its modal damping ratio is studied to meet the range of stainless steel. TMDs are manufactured using stainless steel beams of the same length (9.1 cm) and cross-sectional diameter (0.79 mm), for which the mass (14.13 g) position is adjusted to match the optimal frequency. Three TMDs holding a mass of 14.13 g each cause 89% reduction in the wrist joint angular displacement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaixiang Pang ◽  
Tongyu Wang ◽  
Zhanli Wang ◽  
Junzhi Yu ◽  
Zhongbo Sun ◽  
...  

Nowadays, patients with mild and moderate upper limb paralysis caused by cerebral apoplexy are uncomfortable with autonomous rehabilitation. In this paper, according to the “rope + toothed belt” generalized rope drive design scheme, we design a utility model for a wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot with a tension mechanism. Owing to study of the human upper extremity anatomy, movement mechanisms, and the ranges of motion, it can determine the range of motion angles of the human arm joints, and design the shoulder joint, elbow joint, and wrist joint separately under the principle of ensuring the minimum driving torque. Then, the kinematics, workspace and dynamics analysis of each structure are performed. Finally, the control system of the rehabilitation robot is designed. The experimental results show that the structure is convenient to wear on the human body, and the robot’s freedom of movement matches well with the freedom of movement of the human body. It can effectively support and traction the front and rear arms of the affected limb, and accurately transmit the applied traction force to the upper limb of the joints. The rationality of the wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot design is verified, which can help patients achieve rehabilitation training and provide an effective rehabilitation equipment for patients with hemiplegia caused by stroke.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 790-797
Author(s):  
Koike Yuji ◽  
Suzuki Makoto ◽  
Okino Akihisa ◽  
Takeda Kazuhisa ◽  
Takanami Yasuhiro ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose To clarify the feature values of exercise therapy that can differentiate students and expert therapists and use this information as a reference for exercise therapy education. Methods The participants were therapists with 5 or more years of clinical experience and 4th year students at occupational therapist training schools who had completed their clinical practices. The exercise therapy task included Samothrace (code name, SAMO) exercises implemented on the elbow joint based on the elbow flexion angle, angular velocity, and exercise interval recordings. For analyses and student/therapist comparisons, the peak flexion angle, peak velocity, and movement time were calculated using data on elbow angle changes acquired via SAMO. Subsequently, bootstrap data were generated to differentiate between the exercise therapy techniques adopted by therapists and students, and a support vector machine was used to generate four types of data combinations with the peak flexion angle, peak velocity, and movement time values. These data were used to estimate and compare the respective accuracies with the Friedman test. Results The peak flexion angles were significantly smaller in the case of students. Furthermore, the peak velocities were larger, the peak flexion angles were smaller, and the movement times were shorter compared with those of therapists. The combination of peak velocity and peak flexion angle yielded the highest diagnostic accuracies. Conclusion When students and therapists performed upper limb exercise therapy techniques based on the kinematics movement of a robot arm, the movement speeds and joint angles differed. The combination of peak velocity and peak flexion angle was the most effective classifier used for the differentiation of the abilities of students and therapists. The peak velocity and peak flexion angle of the therapist group can be used as a reference for students when they learn upper limb therapeutic exercise techniques.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 440-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Hernandez ◽  
Nasser Rezzoug ◽  
Julien Jacquier-Bret ◽  
Philippe Gorce

2003 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 1249-1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.C. Mitchell ◽  
M.E. DeMont

This research reports on the kinematics of lobster and snow crab walking, documents changes in the moment arms of the mero-carpopodite joint during rotation, and examines scaling effects of morphological and mechanical variables in these crustacean species. Forward walking lobsters and lateral walking crabs were recorded and images analysed to describe the kinematics of these animals, and subsequently morphometric and moment arm measurements made. During forward walking the lobster maintains fixed mero-carpopodite joint angles during both the power and recovery strokes, though each of the walking legs maintains different joint angles. Legs 3 and 5 are maintained at angles which appear to equalize the flexor and extensor moment arms, and leg 4 joint angle appears to maximize the extensor moment arm. The snow crab has a joint excursion angle of between approximately 50° to 150° and, during flat bed walking, the leading and trailing legs move through similar excursion angles. The length of the meropodite for both species are longer for the anterior two leg pairs relative to the posterior two pairs and the rate of growth of the meropodite is largely isometric for the lobster while consistently increases with positive allometry in the crab. The flexor and extensor moment arms generated as the joint undergoes flexion/extension show two distinct patterns with the extensor moment arm being maximized at relatively low joint angles (55°–115°) and the flexor moment arm reaching a plateau at joint extension with angles between 95° and 155°. The flexor apodeme possesses the largest moment arms in all legs for both species, suggesting the flexors are able to generate greater torques. It appears that, mechanically, these laterally moving animals may be ‘pulling’ with the leading legs to a greater extent than ‘pushing’ with the trailing legs.


Author(s):  
Kai Chen ◽  
Richard A. Foulds

The dependence of muscle force on muscle length gives rise to a “spring - like” behavior which has been shown to play an important role during movement. This study extended this concept and incorporated the influential factors of the mechanical behavior of the neural, muscular and skeletal system on the control of elbow movement. A significant question in motor control is determining how information about movement is used to modify control signals to achieve desired performance. One theory proposed and supported by Feldman et. is the equilibrium point hypothesis (EPH). In it the central nervous system (CNS) reacts to movement as a shift of the limb’s equilibrium posture. The EPH drastically simplified the requisite computations for multi-joint movements and mechanical interactions with complex dynamic objects in the context. Because the neuromuscular system is spring-like, the instantaneous difference between the arm’s actual position and the equilibrium position specified by the neural activity can generate the requisite torques, avoiding the complex “inverse dynamic” of computing the torques at the joints. Moreover, this instantaneous difference serves as a potential source of movement control related to limb dynamics and associated movement-dependent torques when perturbations are added. In this paper, we have used an EPH model to examine changes to control signals for arm movements in the context of adding perturbations in format of forces or torques. The mechanical properties and reflex actions of muscles crossing the elbow joint were examined during a planned 1 radian voluntary elbow flexion movement. Brief unexpected torque/force pulses of identical magnitude and time duration (4.5 N flexion switching to 50 N extension within 120ms) were introduced at various points of a movement in randomly selected trials. Single perturbation was implemented in different trials during early, mid, stages of the movement by pre-programmed 6DOF robotic arm (MOOG FCS HapticMaster). Changes in movement trajectory induced by a torque/ force perturbation determined over the first 120 ms by a position prediction formulation, and then a modified and optimization K-B-I (stiffness-damping-inertia) model was fit to the responses for predicting both non-perturbed and perturbed movement of elbow. The stiffness and damping coefficients estimate during voluntary movements were compared to values recorded of different subjects during trials. A least square nonlinear optimization model was designed to help determine the optimized impedance a subject could generate, and the identified of adapted of K-B-I in perturbed upper limb movements confirmed our assumption.


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