Measure and analysis of motion and muscle forces at the human knee during dynamic motion tasks

The characterization of the joint behaviour under physiological loading condition is a necessary step to come to the definition of significant joint models, which open the way to the identification of better treatments and prosthesis and orthosis designs. A test rig has been recently developed, capable to replicate a generic loading condition while measuring the relative motion of the bones participating to the articulation and estimating the associated muscular forces. In this paper, the rig architecture and functioning will be briefly recalled. Then, the result of its application on a knee joint will be presented.