Computer Simulation Study of Human Locomotion with a Three-Dimensional Entire-Body Neuro-Musculo-Skeletal Model. III. Simulation of Pathological Walking and Its Application to Rehabilitation Engineering.

The three-dimensional entire-body neuro-musculo-skeletal model generating normal walking motion was modified to synthesize pathological walking including asymmetricalcompensatorymotions. Inadditiontotheneuronalparameters, musculo-skeletal parameters were employed as search parameters to represent affected musculo-skeletal systems. This model successfully generated pathological walking patterns, such as walking by a person with one lower extremity shorter than the other and walking by a person with an affected gluteus medius muscle. The simulated walking patterns were of the entire body, three-dimensional, continuous and asymmetrical, and demonstrated the characteristics of actual pathological walking. The walking model with an artificial foot also predicted not only the walking pattern adapted to the artificial foot but also the design parameters of the artificial foot adapted to the effective walking pattern simultaneously. Such simulation methods will establish a novel methodology that we call computational rehabilitation engineering.