Development of a Full-body OpenSim Musculoskeletal Model Incorporating Head-mounted Virtual Reality Headset

Abstract

In this study, we developed and validated a full-body musculoskeletal model in OpenSim to estimate muscle and joint forces while performing various motor tasks using a virtual reality (VR) system. We compared the results from our developed full-body musculoskeletal model to those from previous studies by simulating kinematic and kinetic data of participants performing pick-and-place lifting tasks using with and without a physically interactive VR system. Results showed that scaling errors between the two environments are comparable, while the overall errors were consistent with previous studies. Overall, the results from the inverse dynamic simulations showed the promise of our developed OpenSim models in determining potential intervention or prevention strategies to reduce the musculoskeletal injury incidences while simulating human-device interaction tasks.