Upper Limb Musculoskeletal Modeling for Human-Exoskeleton Interaction

Abstract

The integration of the human body structure and function into the design of human-exoskeleton interface is an engineering challenge. A solution to overcome this problem is the use of musculoskeletal modeling tools such as OpenSIM. The objective of this paper is to develop and use an upper limb musculoskeletal model using OpenSIM to evaluate a Proportional Derivative controller (PD) of an exoskeleton. Obtained results show that the proposed musculoskeletal model could be a reliable tool for exoskeleton design study and controller testing when joint elbow speed is not superior to 300 °/ sec.