Biological Cybernetics

, Volume 72, Issue 4, pp 295–307 | Cite as

A kinematic theory of rapid human movements

Part I. Movement representation and generation
  • Réjean Plamondon
Article
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Accepted:

Abstract

This paper proposes a kinematic theory that can be used to study and analyze rapid human movements. It describes a synergy in terms of the agonist and antagonist neuromuscular systems involved in the production of these movements. It is shown that these systems have a log-normal impulse response that results from the limiting behavior of a large number of interdependent neuromuscular networks, as predicted by the central limit theorem. The delta log-normal law that follows from this model is very general and can reproduce almost perfectly the complete velocity patterns of an end-effector. The theory accounts for the invariance and rescalability of these patterns, as well as for the various observations that have been reported concerning the change in maximum and mean velocities, time to maximum velocity, etc., under different experimental conditions. Movement time, load effects, and control strategies are discussed in a companion paper.

Keywords

Limit Theorem Impulse Response Maximum Velocity Central Limit Central Limit Theorem 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1995

Authors and Affiliations

  • Réjean Plamondon
    • 1
  1. 1.Département de Génie Électrique et de Génie InformatiqueÉcole Polytechnique de MontréalMontréalCanada

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