Optimal Control of Non-ballistic Muscular Movements: A constraint-based performance criterion for rising from a chair

Abstract

To understand how humans perform non-ballistic movements, we have developed an optimal control model to simulate rising from a chair. The human body was modeled as a three-segment, articulated, planar linkage, with adjacent links joined together by frictionless revolutes. The skeleton was actuated by eight musculotendinous units with each muscle modeled as a three-element entity in series with tendon. Because rising from a chair presents a relatively ambiguous performance criterion, we chose to evaluate a number of different performance criteria, each based upon a fundamental dynamical property of movement: Muscle force. Through a quantitative comparison of model and experiment, we found tha..