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Characterizing the performance of human leg external force control.

Pawel Kudzia¹, Stephen N Robinovich², J Maxwell Donelan³

¹Department of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada.

Scientific Reports

|March 24, 2022

Summary

Human leg control is crucial for agility, requiring precise management of force magnitude and position. This study quantifies neuromechanical performance in healthy individuals, revealing consistent accuracy and responsiveness in force control.

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Area of Science:

Biomechanics
Neuroscience
Human Motor Control

Background:

Legs are the primary interface with the environment, generating forces essential for agile locomotion.
Agility depends on the nervous system's ability to precisely control both the magnitude and application point of ground reaction forces.

Purpose of the Study:

To characterize the performance of the healthy human neuromechanical system in controlling externally applied leg forces.
To quantify the responsiveness and accuracy of force-magnitude and force-position control during dynamic tasks.

Main Methods:

Developed a specialized apparatus to immobilize participants while allowing single-leg force exertion onto a force plate.
Utilized real-time visual feedback of leg force-magnitude or force-position, instructing participants to match target step functions.
Quantified control performance metrics including bandwidth, steady-state error, and variability across various force magnitudes.

Main Results:

For force-magnitude control (0.45 bodyweights), a bandwidth of 1.8 ± 0.5 Hz, steady-state error of 2.6 ± 0.9%, and variability of 2.7 ± 0.9% were observed.
Similar control performance in responsiveness and accuracy was found across different step sizes and between force-magnitude and position control.
Increased responsiveness was associated with decreased performance in other metrics, such as overshooting.

Conclusions:

A second-order model effectively predicted the observed external leg force control performance.
Benchmarking force control in healthy humans provides a baseline for understanding variations in agility across individuals, species, and engineered systems.