Estimating Individual Joint Contributions to Recorded Upper Extremity Movements Using OpenSim

A multitude of tasks are performed every day with minimal direct thought on how to orient the arm. While there have been many studies concerning upper extremity motion, there has been relatively little research reported in the area of how individual joint contributions vary between different upper extremity tasks. Such studies are necessary in order to accurately recreate dynamic motions of the arm using mechanical devices, e.g. prosthetic limbs. One difficulty in directly measuring these individual joint contributions in physical experiments is that most tasks are multi-joint movements and the limb segments influence each other causing passive interactive torques [1]. In order to quantify the individual joint contributions, it is beneficial to examine recorded arm movements within a simulation environment such as OpenSim [2].