Power analysis of upper limb movement

Generated and absorbed power in human movement has been an area of biomechanics research interest for many years. This paper deals with power analysis of the upper limb movement. A three-dimensional, three segment model was used, consisting of the arm, forearm and hand with three, two and two degrees of freedom assumed for the shoulder, elbow and wrist, respectively. Kinematic information, i.e., Euler angles of each segment, was obtained using the University of Manitoba Motion Analysis System (UM²AS). From this information, coupled with anthropometric data, muscle forces and joint moments are derived using the Newton-Euler inverse dynamic method. Then, generated and absorbed power of each segment were calculated in two different ways. One was by taking the derivative of total energy of each segment. The other method used power flow, the sum of power generated or absorbed by muscles and power transmitted between the segments