Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
children. Actually, measuring shoulder movements appears
to be essential for the diagnosis and treatment of pathologies
[FAY 08], but also for the assessment of readaptation
techniques [HAN 12] or even to improve sporting
performance [MEY 08]. However, in the case of the upper
limb, things are complicated due to the absence of a
predominant task - unlike gait for the lower limb - and the
large variability that exists when completing everyday tasks
taking into account the redundancy of the kinematic chain of
the upper limb, comprising complex and highly mobile joints
such as the shoulder.
Several recent literature reviews on analysis of upper
limb motion [JAS 09, KON 09] highlight the need to
standardize the protocols and methods used for analysis.
Indeed, these articles refer to the use of very different
measurement protocols without consensus with regard to the
number or position of markers, the definition of segment and
joint coordinate systems or even the order of rotation
sequences chosen for joint angles reporting. The tasks
analyzed are quite varied: usually, they involve 'reach to
grasp' or 'reach to touch'; the grasping and manipulation of
objects have also been studied as well as more functional
tasks such as moving the hand to the mouth, touching the
head, putting the hand in a pocket, etc. In most cases, the
reference position corresponds to a seated subject, but some
subjects stand upright during the execution of movements of
the upper limb for some studies. This large variability, both
with regard to the experimental protocols and processing of
recorded data, make the compilation of these data incredibly
difficult, whether to characterize the movements of a
population of healthy subjects, or to compare and monitor
the functional capacities of patients.
The ISB proposed recommendations for the definition of
segment and joint coordinate systems to be used for the
motion analysis of the upper limb [WU 05]. However,
