Force platform and kinematic analysis

Abstract

Abstract Animals exert forces to move objects in their environment and to move themselves from place to place. Body segment motion, in turn, produces inertial forces that must also be countered by the muscles controlling motion at related joints. Kinetics involves the study of the forces acting on rigid bodies. Kinematics is the study of the motions produced by those forces. Linking the two analyses together, provides a powerful non-invasive approach for studying the hiomechanics of animal locomotion, and motor activity in general. For instance, measurements of the forces applied externally to an animal’s body (such as ground reaction forces exerted on an animal’s limbs when it runs), coupled with kinematic and anatomical data of the limb, allows an analysis of the internal forces that limb muscles must produce to counter externally applied forces. The data obtained from such studies are fundamental to our understanding of how the design of muscu\oske\ctal structures is related to the physical demands placed upon them during various functional activities of the animal in question. In addition, kinematic analysis alone can provide estimates of the inertial loads associated with body segment motion that must be controlled by musdes. Such analyses are particularly important in relation to studies of nervous system control of motor function.