May 2017 Vol. 5 No.5

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Original Research Article

Modeling and simulation of lower limb dynamics using simmechanics for potential applications in bilateral prosthesis control

Sabreen Abdallah Abdelwahab

Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt, Production Technology Department.

E-mail: engsabreenabdallah@gmail.com, Sabreen_Abdallah@techedu.helwan.edu.eg

Accepted May 25, 2017

Abstract

Bilateral transfemoral amputees face many vital problems in normal walking that prevent them from being full-time prosthesis users such as unbalance, instability and increased energy expenditure. They use two prosthetic legs where each leg has a separate control system. In human body, both legs are related to each other and are related to human body while in motion. Consequently, the two prosthetic legs should be controlled using one system. In this work, a SimMechanics model that relates human legs dynamics to each other and to the body in normal walking was developed for further use in bilateral prosthesis control and development. Model inputs are motion data of ankle, knee, and hip joints and the outputs are joints forces and torques. The model showed a good performance when comparing its outputs to the literature bio-mechanics data.

Keywords: Human Body Motion, Modeling and Simulation, Simulink, SimMechanics, Human Biomechanics Data, Human Body Metrices, Reverse Dynamics, Lower Limb Dynamics, Bilateral Prosthesis Control