Abstract

Control of biomechanical experiments, especially those involving musculoskeletal joints such as the knee or spine, is a complicated problem because of the highly nonlinear kinematic, structural, and material properties of the tissue. Historically, materials testing machines with one or two degrees of freedom (DOF) (e.g. biaxial Instron, MTS) have been used. However, these devices, originally designed for testing of “standardized” engineering materials, are limited in two critical areas: 1) The number of DOF, and 2) The control system, which restricts the experiment to either “force control” or “displacement control” methods.

Volume Subject Area:
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Topics:
Biomechanics, Lumbar spine, Robotics, Simulation, Testing, Biological tissues, Control systems, Degrees of freedom, Displacement, Force control, Kinematics, Knee, Machinery, Materials properties, Materials testing, Musculoskeletal system
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 2001 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
You do not currently have access to this content.