Reconstruction of human swing leg motion with passive biarticular muscle models

Template models, which are utilized to demonstrate general aspects in human locomotion, mostly investigate stance leg operation. The goal of this paper is presenting a new conceptual walking model benefiting from swing leg dynamics. Considering a double pendulum equipped with combinations of biarticular springs for the swing leg beside spring-mass (SLIP) model for the stance leg, a novel SLIP-based model, is proposed to explain human-like leg behavior in walking. The action of biarticular muscles in swing leg motion helps represent human walking features, like leg retraction, ground reaction force and generating symmetric walking patterns, in simulations. In order to stabilize the motion by the proposed passive structure, swing leg biarticular muscle parameters such as lever arm ratios, stiffnesses and rest lengths need to be properly adjusted. Comparison of simulation results with human experiments shows the ability of the proposed model in replicating kinematic and kinetic behavior of both stance and swing legs as well as biarticular thigh muscle force of the swing leg. This substantiates the important functional role of biarticular muscles in leg swing.