Abstract
The emu is a large, (bipedal) flightless bird that potentially can be used to study various orthopaedic disorders in which load protection of the experimental limb is a limitation of quadrupedal models. An anatomy-based analysis of normal emu walking gait was undertaken to determine hip contact forces for comparison with human data. Kinematic and kinetic data captured for two laboratory-habituated emus were used to drive the model. Muscle attachment data were obtained by dissection, and bony geometries were obtained by CT scan. Inverse dynamics calculations at all major lower-limb joints were used in conjunction with optimization of muscle forces to determine hip contact forces. Like human walking gait, emu ground reaction forces showed a bimodal distribution over the course of the stance phase. Two-bird averaged maximum hip contact force was approximately 5.5 times body weight, directed nominally axially along the femur. This value is only modestly larger than optimization-based hip contact forces reported in literature for humans. The interspecies similarity in hip contact forces makes the emu a biomechanically attractive animal in which to model loading-dependent human orthopaedic hip disorders.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 770-778 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Biomechanics |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors have no conflict of interest to report. Funding for the research presented in this paper was provided by NIH Grant #AR 049919.
Keywords
- Contact forces
- Emu
- Gait analysis
- Kinematics