Healthy Gardeners

Funder

RHS

Principal investigator

Dr. James Shippen

Project objectives

Biomechanical software has been developed at Coventry University which has the capability of analysing musculoskeletal systems. This software has been downloaded by over 400 research institutions and commercial organisations. There is a motion capture facility at Coventry University based on optical tracking and magneto-inertial principals which is used to record the 3-dimensional motion of human subjects. Interfaces have been developed to enable the transfer of data from the motion capture systems into the biomechanical software. This hardware/software combination has been used to analyse musculoskeletal systems in dance, horticultural, sport, paraplegia and product design contexts.

Research impact

Coventry University is a leading research institution in the field of biomechanics (the application of engineering analysis to the human body mechanism for calculate such variables as motion and bone, muscle and joint forces). This information is important when considering product design (eg medical devices, sports technology, automotive design and ergonomics), patient rehabilitation and sports performance.

BoB (Biomechanics of bodies) is a biomechanical analysis package consisting of a human musculoskeletal model and inverse dynamics code to calculate anatomical trajectories, muscle loads, joint contact forces, ground reaction forces and a graphics engine to display multi-subject graphics as images and videos.

Outputs from BoB include:

1) anatomical trajectories,

2) muscle loads

3) joint contact forces

4) ground reaction forces

5) graphics engine to display multi-subject graphics as images and videos.

BoB has been developed in a Matlab environment and inherits the analysis capability of Matlab and output data can be manipulated by Matlab. BoB is also available as a standalone package for non-Matlab users.

Potential beneficiaries of this research include athletes, sports product designers, vehicle designers, medics, physiotherapists, archaeologists, dancers as well as end users for example the older person susceptible to falling.