Autonomous muscle-driven motion - spine biomechanics, motor control and forensic neuromechanics

Abstract

Biological motion is fascinating. Especially locomotion plays a crucial part in the evolution of life. Highly evolved structures, like bones connected by joints and soft tissues and contracting proteins in a muscle-tendon unit, enable and prescribe the respective species' specific locomotion pattern. Most importantly, biological motion is autonomously learned, it is untethered as there is no external energy supply and typical for vertebrates, it's muscle-driven. We approach this facinating topic from a modelling and simulation perspective. This talk will give three recent examples of our work in the following fields: spine biomechanics, motor control, forensic neuromechanics