Static to dynamic: an application of the two-joint link model of mono- and biarticular muscles to pedaling biomechanics

Abstract

The two-joint link model of mono- and biarticular muscles in human hindlimbs has been established on the basis of biomechanical and mechanical engineering analyses of electromyographic data and testing of the results using robotic hindlimbs equipped with mono- and/or biarticular actuators. The present review applies this model to the analysis of pedaling biomechanics and demonstrates its applicability to studies of human and non-human limb locomotion. Previously published three examples of electromyographic data on pedaling biomechanics are analyzed and reviewed in light of the two-joint link model. As comparable to published data on pedaling biomechanics, the results propose the essential parameters of the model, including activity switches and their directional changes, forces and their combined forces, all that occur in 360 degrees around the right ankle joint during the stationary and continuous pedaling activities. In addition, the co-activation of an antagonistic pair of biarticular muscles and parallel linkage function of a biarticular muscle are proposed to be tested further in both engineering and biological sciences. As biomimetics has contributed to engineering science, the models and/or hypotheses that would be generated in engineering science can be applied to biological science.

Keywords

• two-joint link model
• mono- and biarticular muscles
• pedaling
• stretch shortening cycle
• parallel linkage function