Biomechanical Analysis of Human Gait When Changing Velocity and Carried Loads: Simulation Study with OpenSim
Cristina Brambilla,
Giulia Beltrame,
Giorgia Marino,
Valentina Lanzani,
Roberto Gatti,
Nicola Portinaro,
Lorenzo Molinari Tosatti,
Alessandro Scano
Affiliations
Cristina Brambilla
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), Italian Council of National Research (CNR), 20133 Milan, Italy
Giulia Beltrame
Residency Program in Orthopedics and Traumatology, Universitá degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy
Giorgia Marino
Physiotherapy Unit, IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, 20098 Milan, Italy
Valentina Lanzani
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), Italian Council of National Research (CNR), 20133 Milan, Italy
Roberto Gatti
Physiotherapy Unit, IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, 20098 Milan, Italy
Nicola Portinaro
Residency Program in Orthopedics and Traumatology, Universitá degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy
Lorenzo Molinari Tosatti
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), Italian Council of National Research (CNR), 20133 Milan, Italy
Alessandro Scano
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), Italian Council of National Research (CNR), 20133 Milan, Italy
Walking is one of the main activities of daily life and gait analysis can provide crucial data for the computation of biomechanics in many fields. In multiple applications, having reference data that include a variety of gait conditions could be useful for assessing walking performance. However, limited extensive reference data are available as many conditions cannot be easily tested experimentally. For this reason, a musculoskeletal model in OpenSim coupled with gait data (at seven different velocities) was used to simulate seven carried loads and all the combinations between the two parameters. The effects on lower limb biomechanics were measured with torque, power, and mechanical work. The results demonstrated that biomechanics was influenced by both speed and load. Our results expand the previous literature: in the majority of previous work, only a subset of the presented conditions was investigated. Moreover, our simulation approach provides comprehensive data that could be useful for applications in many areas, such as rehabilitation, orthopedics, medical care, and sports.
