Control of Sliding and Rolling at Natural Joints

The planar motion of the human knee joint is modeled, involving the relative motion of the geometry of the contacting surface between the tibia and the femur. The pure gliding motion and the pure rolling motion are formulated including the holonomic and nonholonomic constraints that must be satisfied. A control strategy with two classes of inputs: muscle forces that stabilize and bring about the motion and the ligament forces that maintain the constraints is presented. Finally, the effectiveness of this control structure is demonstrated via digital computer simulations in the pure gliding motion and the pure rolling motion of the knee.