Energy optimal trajectories in human arm motion aiming for assistive robots

The energy expenditure in human arm has been of great interests for seeking optimal human arm trajecto- ries. This paper presents a new way for calculating metabolic energy consumption of human arm motions. The purpose is to reveal the relationship between the energy consumption and the trajectory of arm mo- tion, and further, the acceleration and arm orientation contributions. Human arm motion in horizontal plane is investigated by virtue of Qualisys motion capture system. The motion data is post-processed by a biomechanical model to obtain the metabolic expenditure. Results on the arm motion kinematics, dynamics and metabolic energy consumption, are included.