Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
such details, he had already described the successive stages
of motion, so that they could be better represented
(Figure 1.1(b)).
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608-1679) is also widely
renowned as one of the pioneers of the study of human
movement. By applying the mechanical principles proposed
by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), in an attempt to explain the
movements of animals and humans in his famous work
De
Muto Animalium
[BOR 89], Borelli is often considered as the
“father of biomechanics”. He was, however, the first to
understand the importance of lever arms of the
musculoskeletal system in the production of movement
(Figure 1.2).
Figure 1.2.
Drawings of G.A. Borelli, according to [BOR 89]
The next pioneers were the Weber brothers, who were the
first to establish the trajectory of the center of mass during
walking [WEB 92].
