Bio-inspired Topological Skeleton for the Analysis of Quadruped Kinematic Gait

Benjamin Boudon (1) , Jean-Marc Linares (2) , Anick Abourachid (3) , Arthur Vauquelin (2) , Emmanuel Mermoz (4)

1 LIS - Laboratoire d'Informatique et des Systèmes (LIS) (Marseille, Toulon)
2 ISM - Institut des Sciences du Mouvement Etienne Jules Marey
3 MAOAC - Mécanismes adaptatifs : des organismes aux communautés
4 Eurocopter France

In bio-inspired design activities, Nature is a basis of knowledge. Over the last twenty years, many solutions to measure and analyze human or animal gaits have been developed (VICON system, X-ray radiography...). Although, these methods are becoming more and more accurate, they are quite expensive, long to set up and not easily portable. In this paper, a method called the bio-inspired topological skeleton is suggested in order to complement the classic videography process and to enable animal gait analysis. A new predictive kin-ematic model with closed-loops of an unguligrade quadruped will be suggested. This kinematic model includes three segments per leg and takes into account the scapula movements. The proposed method allows us to improve the accuracy of the kinematic input data measured from a single video including an additional artefact. To show the benefits of this method, joint parameters that are difficult to measure are derived symbolically from a kinematic model and compared with experimental data.

Mots clés: Closed-form solutions; Topological Skeleton; Motion analysis; Multibody systems (MBS); Quadruped locomotion

Domaines: Mécanique [physics.med-ph]; Biomécanique [physics.med-ph]

Benjamin Boudon, Jean-Marc Linares, Anick Abourachid, Arthur Vauquelin, Emmanuel Mermoz. Bio-inspired Topological Skeleton for the Analysis of Quadruped Kinematic Gait. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 2018, 15 (5), pp.839 - 850. ⟨10.1007/s42235-018-0071-3⟩. ⟨hal-01898658⟩