Predicting support reaction forces for standing and seated tasks with given postures - A preliminary study

Abstract

This paper proposes a systematic approach for predicting the support reaction forces (SRFs) acting on a digital human model with a given posture. In addition, a generic method has been developed to determine the accurate body segment inertia properties (BSIPs) needed for subject-specific simulation. Experiments based on motion capture are used to track the posture and to find subject's link lengths. The prediction model calculates the support reaction forces by using the zero moment point (ZMP) formulation. This study considers two general postural cases: standing and seated. The standing tasks include standing on two planes with arbitrary orientations. The seated tasks include sitting on a seat where the seat pan is parallel to the floor and both feet are on the floor. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.