Physiologically and biomechanically, the human body represents a complicated system with an abundance of degrees of freedom\n(DOF). When developing mathematical representations of the body, a researcher has to decide on how many of those DOF to\ninclude in the model. Though accuracy can be enhanced at the cost of complexity by including more DOF, their necessity must\nbe rigorously examined. In this study a planar seven-segment human body walking model with single DOF joints was developed.\nA reference point was added to the model to track the bodyââ?¬â?¢s global position while moving. Due to the kinematic instability of\nthe pelvis, the top of the head was selected as the reference point, which also assimilates the vestibular sensor position. Inverse\ndynamics methods were used to formulate and solve the equations of motion based on Newton-Euler formulae. The torques and\nground reaction forces generated by the planar model during a regular gait cycle were compared with similar results from a more\ncomplex three-dimensional OpenSim model with muscles, which resulted in correlation errors in the range of 0.9ââ?¬â??0.98. The close\ncomparison between the two torque outputs supports the use of planar models in gait studies.
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