An alternative scheme for determination of joint reaction forces in human multibody models

Multibody models are commonly used in the analysis of human movements. The dynamic formulations often use minimal sets of generalized coordinates, and joint reactions (non-working reactions of model-intrinsic constraints) are excluded from evidence. A separate modeling effort is then required to determine joint reactions, and the arising numerical procedures are computationally arduous. In this paper, a novel efficient approach to the determination of joint reactions is developed, which naturally assists the minimal-form formulations of human body dynamics. The proposed scheme does not involve matrix inversion, and as such it is well suited for both symbolic manipulations and computer implementations. The method is illustrated with a seven-segment planar model of a human body. Some results from the inverse dynamics simulation of somersaults on a trampoline are reported.