HUMAN BODY AS A MECHATRONIC SYSTEM Complex Modelling, Simulation and Control

The modelling of the human locomotor system and its simulation are subjects of intensive studies, due mostly to the development of the computer processing power and the appropriate software. Most fields of application are located in the reconstruction of human movements: the motor, its transmission and the necessary control systems. The goal to have a general approach fully describing the Human Body as a System, with high accuracy and open set of functions for its entire complexity is still to be reached. Envisioning the body as an open system we refer to: the 3D-geometry of all bones and their 3D-defined positions (six degrees of freedom, the corresponding coordinates, restrictions and anomalies), the joints, ligaments and muscles with their frictions, both viscous and dry, and the contact pressures, the sensorial system with its information conduits and control mechanism and, last but not least, the human brain, as a hard-soft-controller for this most intricate and complex system that is the human body. This paper presents some main ideas for this approach and achieved results concerning steps on the way towards obtaining this goal. The first beneficiaries to welcome these results are, on the one hand, the sportsmen and, on the other, the architects and engineers working on humanoid robots.