Software analyses human biomechanical movement
A
The Mathworks product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Feb 13, 2004
Matlab from The MathWorks is being used by Marlbrook (UK) to analyse the biomechanical movement of humans.
Matlab from The MathWorks is being used by Marlbrook (UK) to analyse the biomechanical movement of humans.
The company is measuring the movement of athletes by attaching ping-pong balls to their bodies and capturing the position of these markers 240 times a second using 16 cameras.
The positions of the markers are then converted into biomechanical data using a toolbox written in Matlab.
The results of this optical tracking can be used for a number of different motion analysis applications, for example to enable an orthopaedic surgeon to diagnose a patient or to improve a professional athlete's technique.
The project is being undertaken to provide the users of motion analysis hardware with an environment to post-process the raw data they have collected.
The graphics tool has been designed so that it is intuitive and can be used by nontechnical personnel, for example clinical staff, and the macro language is provided for those that wish to use the tool for more advanced analysis without having to learn vector mechanics or how to use Matlab.
The objective is to produce a commercial package which could be used in any industry concerned with motion analysis, including clinical, sports, industrial development, health and safety, and ergonomics.
"Motion analysis is essentially a vector problem and can be translated into vectors well, so Matlab is the ideal tool for us", said James Shippen, Technical Director at Marlbrook (UK).
"The software provides us with fast, accurate graphics and post-processing.
Although other similar commercial packages exist they do not provide a link that utilises the power of Matlab".
The biomechanical toolbox comprises over 45,000 lines of M-script and provides the functionality required by the biomechanical engineer.
These functions include: a library of vector geometry operators; a viewer to display three-dimensional animation of motion data; specialist biomechanical functions, for example to recreate the position of markers which cannot be seen by any cameras; and the calculation of biomechanically significant variables, such as joint angles and power flow within the body.
The toolbox is written in a subset of Matlab compatible with the Matlab Compiler to enable distribution as a compiled stand-alone executable.
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