Instrumented prostheses, by measuring joint contact forces during a movement, give nowadays a unique opportunity to validate the ability of musculo-skeletal models in predicting internal forces.
In this study, a rigid multi-body musculo-skeletal model, allowing computing the musculo-tendon, joint contact, ligament and bone forces all together by static optimisation, using a weighted criterion, is presented.
The results show that the musculo-tendon forces are generally in accordance with the envelopes of the main peaks of the subject’s EMG signals and that the amplitudes and patterns of the predicted joint contact, ligament and bone forces are in a good agreement with the measurements and with the literature. By allowing the introduction of other forces than the musculo-tendon forces in the static optimisation, this study opens new horizons in order to better model the human physiology (e.g., joint pain).
