Measuring the inertial properties of cadaver segments

The purpose of this study was to devise and test a method of determining the inertial properties of frozen cadaver segments, including the principal moments of inertia. Balsa wood segment holding boxes were developed and tested on a variety of test objects and on one sixteen segment cadaver. The method was both time efficient and accurate, yielding absolute percentage errors of approximately 1% +/- 1% for each of the three principal moments of inertia based on 110 tests for each parameter. The time required to test each cadaver segment did not exceed 30 min.