• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.2413-2419
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• 2015

Core spinal muscles are related to trunk stability and assume the main role of stabilizing the spine during daily activities; strengthening of core muscles around the spine can therefore reduce the chance of back pain. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of core muscle strengthening in the spine during spine stabilization exercise using a whole body tilt device. To achieve this, a validated musculoskeletal (MS) model of the whole body was used to replicate the input motion from the whole body tilting exercise. An inverse dynamics analysis was executed to estimate spine loads and muscle forces depending on the tilting angles of the exercise device. The activation of long and superficial back muscles such as the erector spinae (iliocostalis and longissimus) were mainly affected by the forward direction (-40°) of the tilt, while the front muscles (psoas major, quadratus lumborum, and external and internal obliques) were mainly affected by the backward tilting direction (40°). Deep muscles such as the multifidi and short muscles were activated in most directions of the rotation and tilt. The backward directions of the tilt using this device could be carefully applied for the elderly and for rehabilitation patients who are expected to have less muscle strength. In this study, it was shown that the spine stabilization exercise device can provide considerable muscle exercise effect.

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2012

This study analyzes the characteristics of two different kinds of squat exercise through physical experiments and a computer simulation, i.e. one with a free weight and the other with a Smith machine are studied. This study also proposes a new design for the Smith machine, which has both the advantages of each type based on the results of the analysis. The muscle force and level of stimulation of the lower extremities during squatting were calculated by running an inverse dynamics analysis program on a musculoskeletal model together with the measured motion data. The calculated results were verified by comparing with the measured EMG data. The analysis showed that squatting using free weight is more effective than squatting using the Smith machine. Meanwhile, in order to design an improved Smith machine, which is the final goal of this study, the trajectory of the barbell of the subjects during free weight squatting was measured on the sagittal plane. The measurement showed that the average slope of the trajectory of the barbell is tilted backward by $10.7^{\circ}$. Based on this measurement, this study proposes a tilted design for an improved Smith machine.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2009

In the working population, muscle fatigue and musculoskeletal discomfort are common, which, in the case of insufficient recovery may lead to musculoskeletal pain. Workers suffering from musculoskeletal pains need to be rehabilitated for recovery. Isokinetic testing has been used in physical strengthening, rehabilitation and post-operative orthopedic surgery. Frequency analysis of electromyography (EMG) signals using the mean frequency (MNF) has been widely used to characterize muscle fatigue. During isokinetic contractions, EMG signals present strong nonstationarities. Hilbert-Haung transform (HHT) and autoregressive (AR) model have been known more suitable than Fourier or wavelet transform for nonstationary signals. Moreover, several analyses have been performed within each active phase during isokinetic contractions. Thus, the aims of this study were i) to determine which one was better suitable for the analysis of MNF between HHT and AR model during repetitive maximum isokinetic extensions and ii) to investigate whether the analysis could be repeated for sequential fixed epoch lengths. Seven healthy volunteers (five males and two females) performed isokinetic knee extensions at $60^{\circ}/s$ and $240^{\circ}/s$ until 50% of the maximum peak torque was reached. Surface EMG signals were recorded from the rectus femoris of the right thigh. An algorithm detecting the onset and offset of EMG signals was applied to extract each active phase of the muscle. Following the results, slopes from the least-square error linear regression of MNF values showed that muscle fatigue of all subjects occurred. The AR model is better suited than HHT for estimating MNF from nonstationary EMG signals during isokinetic knee extensions. Moreover, the linear regression can be extracted from MNF values calculated by sequential fixed epoch lengths (p> 0.0I).

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1990.04a
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• pp.140-150
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• 1990

Further developments on a dynamic biomechanical model are presented to assess musculoskeletal stresses and human responses. The model being developed is an extension of the Articulated Total Body (ATB) Model, originally developed by Calsapan Corp. for the study of human dynamics during automobile crashes, later adopted to the U.S.Air Force to simulate the reactions of aircrew personnel to such forces typically encountered in various phases of flight operations. Further refinements were introduced by Freivalds and Kaleps(1984) to account for a human neuromusculature. In this study, modelling of active neuromusculature was described and simulations of whole-body human motion were performed using the ATB Model. It indicated the potential of using a muscularized biomechanical model coupled with CAD capabilities to simulate human responses in a variety of industrial settings as well. This will serve as a basis of incorporating computer aided design methods into a muscularized biomechanical models.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.157-163
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• 2004

Scoliosis is a complex musculoskeletal dieses requiring 3-D treatment with surgical instrumentation. To investigate the effects of correction surgery, a finite element model of personalized model of the scoliotic spine that will allow the design of clinical test providing optimal estimation of the post-operation results was developed. Three dimensional skeletal parts, such as vertebrae, clavicle and scapular were modeled as rigid bodies with keeping their morphologies. Kinematical joints and spring elements were adapted to represent the inter-vertebral disc and ligaments respectively. With this model, two types of surgery procedure, distraction procedure with Harrington device and rod derotation procedure with pedicle screw and rod system had been carried out. The obtained simulation results were comparatively corresponding to the post operational outcomes and successfully demonstrated qualitative analysis of surgical effectiveness. From this analysis, it has been found that the preparing of appropriate rod curvature and its insertion was more important than just performing the excessive derotation for scoliosis correction.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1774-1779
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• 2014

It is known that muscle strength of human body can alter or deteriorate as aging. In this study, we present an inverse dynamics simulation to investigate the effect of muscle strength on performing the daily activities. A 3D musculoskeletal model developed in this study includes several segments of whole body, long and short muscles, ligaments and disc stiffness. Five daily activities such as standing, flexion, finger tip to floor, standing lift close and lifting flexed were simulated with varying the maximum muscle force capacities (MFC) of each muscle fascicles from 30 to $90N/cm^2$ with an increment of $30N/cm^2$. In the result, no solution can be obtained for finger tip to floor and lifting flexed with $30N/cm^2$. Even though the solution was available for standing lift close activity in case of $30N/cm^2$ capacity, many of muscle fascicles hit the upper bound of muscle strength which means that it is not physiologically possible to perform the acvities in reality. For lifing flexed, even the case of $60N/cm^2$ capaciy, represents the moderate healthy people, was not able to find the solutions, showing that 18 muscles among 258 muscle fascicles reached 100% of muscle capacity. The estimated results imply that people who have low muscle strength such as elders or rehabilitation patients were required higher muscle work to perform and maintain the same daily activities than healthy one.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.701-704
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• 2003

Scoliosis is a complex musculoskeletal dieses requiring 3-D treatment with surgical instrumentation. Conventional corrective surgery for scoliosis was done based on empirical knowledge without information of the optimum position and operative procedure. Frequently, post operative change of rib hump increase and shoulder level imbalance caused serious problems in the view of cosmetics. To investigate the effect of correction surgery, a reconstructed 3-D finite element model for King-Moe type V was developed. Vertebrae, clavicle and other bony element were represented using rigid bodies. Kinematic joints and nonlinear bar elements used to represent the intervertebral disc and ligaments according to reported experimental data. With this model, optimization technique was also applied in order to define the optimal magnitudes of correction. The optimization procedure corrected the scoliotic deformities by reducing the objective function by more than 94%. with an associated reduction of the scoliotic descriptors mainly on the frontal thoracic curve.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.155-163
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• 2008

This study investigated biomechanical response through the 3-dimensional virtual skeletal model developed and validated. Ten male subjects in standing posture were exposed to whole body vibrations and measured acceleration on anatomical of interest (head, $7^{th}$ cervical, $10^{th}$ thoracic, $4^{th}$ lumbar, knee joint and bottom of the vibrator). Three dimensional virtual skeletal model and vibration machine were created by using BRG LifeMOD and MSC.ADAMS. The results of forward dynamic analysis were compared with results of experiment. The results showed that the accuracy of developed model was $73.2{\pm}19.2%$ for all conditions.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2005

Periosteum and periosteum-derived progenitor cells have demonstrated the potential for stimulative applications in repairs of various musculoskeletal tissues. It has been found that the periosteum contains mesenchymal progenitor cells capable of differentiating into either osteoblasts or chondrocytes depending on the culture conditions. Anatomically, the periosteum is a heterogeneous multi-layered membrane, consisting of an inner cambium and an outer fibrous layer. The present study was designed to elucidate the cellular phenotypic characteristics of cambium and fibrous layer cells in vitro, and to assess whether structural integrity of the tendon in the bone tunnel can be improved by periosteal augmentation of the tendon­bone interface. It was found the cells from each layer showed distinct phenotypic characteristics in a primary monolayer culture system. Specifically, the cambium cells demonstrated higher osteogenic characteristics (higher alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin levels), as compared to the fibrous cells. Also in vivo animal model showed that a periosteal augmentation of a tendon graft could enhance the structural integrity of the tendon-bone interface, when the periosteum is placed between the tendon and bone interface with the cambium layer facing toward the bone. These findings suggest that extra care needs to be taken in order to identify and maintain the intrinsic phenotypes of the heterogeneous cell types within the periosteum. This will improve our understanding of periosteum in applications for musculoskeletal tissue repairs and tissue engineering.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.241-246
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• 2009

Since inappropriate muscle forces mean that people cannot perform some activities related to roles of the muscle, muscle forces have been considered as an important parameter in clinic. Therefore, many methods have been introduced to estimate muscle forces indirectly. One of the methods is muscle tissue dynamics and it is widely used in commercial softwares including musculoskeletal model, such as SIMM. They, however, need motion data captured from 3-dimensional motion analysis system. In this study, we introduced an algorithm to estimate muscle forces in real-time by using joint angles. The heel-rise movements were performed for a normal with 3-dimensional motion analysis system, EMG measurement system, and electrogoniometers. Joint angles obtained from electrogoniometers and EMG signals were used to estimate muscle forces. Simulation was performed to find muscle forces using motion data which was imported into musculoskeletal software. As the results, muscle lengths and forces from the developed algorithm were similar to those from commercial software in pattern. Results of this study would be helpful to implement a tool to calculate reasonable muscle forces in real-time.