Viscoelastic Measurement of Human Biceps Brachii

Abstract

Conventional Hill type muscle models have been widely used in the fields of human movement research because of its some advantages in implementation into numerical calculation procedures. While cyclic or repeat human motion such as gate or bike cycling can be simulated with the Hill type model, quick transient responses are not sufficiently simulated. A new muscle model has been proposed to simulate the non-linear human neuro-muscular behavior with two Maxwell elements. The new model is based on two binding conditions of cross bridges between contractile proteins actin and myosin. In this study viscoelastic measurements were carried out for human biceps-brachii by measuring the force response to with ramp displacement under about 10 % of maximum voluntary contraction. The measurement was performed in perpendicular direction to muscle contraction. A measurement component was pushed into muscle belly of upper arm to detect biceps brachii muscle over the skin. A linear actuator was controlled with microcomputer Arduino for ramp displacement of 5 mm with speed of 60 mm/s. The force response was recorded by a load cell. The results are compared with the numerical calculations.