INVESTIGATION OF THE SIMULATION OF THE MASS MOMENTS OF INERTIA FOR THE TRUNK

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The growth of computer technology helps us to understand and analyze human movement patterns, equally important for both the biomechanist and coach. To carry out exact investigations the applied model has to use correct kinematical and kinetic characteristics of the human body. With manually performed image processing the application of the number of necessary key-points will affect the error of the measurement. The Applied Mechanics Department of the Technical University of Budapest has developed a suitable model for determining the elements of the mass moments of inertia for the different segments of the human body. The model is a refined Hanavan model representing the human body with 16 simple geometric solids determined by the spatial co-ordinates of 20 key points, and only 6 further data are used, compared with 242 data used in Hatze's model and 45 data used in Barton's model. The minimization of the necessary key points reduces the number of digitalization errors.