Development of a method of optimization of the musculoskeletal load of the human trunk

The aim of the task was develop a method of human trunk muscles co-operation. The developed method determines the principles of controlling muscle forces with a few minimizing criteria. The developed optimizing criterion is based on the criterion of the minimum energy produced by the muscles necessary to maintain a specific posture with a specific external load and a criterion of additional energy related to abdominal pressure. The project included: -computer calculations with a 3D model of the human trunk, which was enhanced with the developed optimization criterion as well as other criteria: line, cubic and energy ones for selected variants of external load,-experimental studies with surface electromyography for the same variants of external load,-a comparative analysis of the results of calculations of muscle forces obtained for existing methods of optimization and the method developed as part of this project of controlling the musculoskeletal system with the results of experimental studies.On the basis of the results of the studies and simulations, it was shown that the calculated (with the developed criterion of optimizing) values of the muscles forces are similar to the values measured in experiments.