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Analyzing Modeled Torque Profiles To Understand Scale-Dependent Active Muscle Responses In The Hip Joint, Fletcher Young, Hillel J. Chiel, Matthew Tresch, Charles Heckman, Alexander J. Hunt, Roger Quinn

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Animal locomotion is influenced by a combination of constituent joint torques (e.g., due to limb inertia and passive viscoelasticity), which determine the necessary muscular response to move the limb. Across animal size-scales, the relative contributions of these constituent joint torques affect the muscular response in different ways. We used a multi-muscle biomechanical model to analyze how passive torque components change due to an animal’s size-scale during locomotion. By changing the size-scale of the model, we characterized emergent muscular responses at the hip as a result of the changing constituent torque profile. Specifically, we found that activation phases between extensor and …