BioMAC-Sim-Toolbox: A MATLAB toolbox for biomechanical motion analysis and creation through simulation

Koelewijn A, Nitschke M, Dorschky E, Gambietz M, Weiß A, Eskofier B, van den Bogert AJ (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Journal of Open Source Software JOSS

Book Volume: 10

Pages Range: 7945

Issue: 115

DOI: 10.21105/joss.07945

Abstract

We present a MATLAB toolbox for human movement simulation and analysis. The toolbox’s

focus is on creating simulations of human walking and running by solving trajectory optimization

problems. In these problems, the muscle excitations and initial state are found that minimize

an objective related to energy expenditure. To solve the trajectory optimization problems, we

have implemented a direct collocation framework. Different objectives have been implemented

that represent energy or effort minimization. We have also included different objectives for

data tracking, including tracking of joint angles, ground reaction forces, accelerometer data,

gyroscope data, and marker positions. We have implemented two different two-dimensional

(2D) musculoskeletal models and one three-dimensional (3D) musculoskeletal model. To show

how the toolbox can be used, we include a tutorial, a 2D and a 3D introductory example, as

well as different applications that are based on previous publications. The toolbox is versatile

due to its object-oriented design, such that different dynamics models can be easily combined

with different problem classes. In the future, we aim to implement different other problem

classes as well, such as inverse kinematics and dynamics to process experimental data, static

and dynamic optimizations to find muscle simulations from joint moments, while also forward

shooting can be used to investigate neural control of gait.

Authors with CRIS profile

Anne Koelewijn Professur für Computational Movement Science Marlies Nitschke Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab Eva Dorschky Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab Markus Gambietz Professur für Computational Movement Science Alexander Weiß Juniorprofessur für Computational Movement Science (Stiftungsprofessur) Björn Eskofier Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab

Involved external institutions

Cleveland State University US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Koelewijn, A., Nitschke, M., Dorschky, E., Gambietz, M., Weiß, A., Eskofier, B., & van den Bogert, A.J. (2025). BioMAC-Sim-Toolbox: A MATLAB toolbox for biomechanical motion analysis and creation through simulation. Journal of Open Source Software, 10, 7945. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.07945

MLA:

Koelewijn, Anne, et al. "BioMAC-Sim-Toolbox: A MATLAB toolbox for biomechanical motion analysis and creation through simulation." Journal of Open Source Software 10 (2025): 7945.

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