Determination of inertial parameters using a dynamometer

Abstract

In this study, a simple method based on the dynamic equation of motion was introduced to determine the moment of inertia using a commercial dynamometer, and an optimization technique was utilized to estimate inertial parameters with the determined moment of inertia. To evaluate the feasibility of the developed method, three different passive speeds (i.e. 240, 270 and 300°/s) were chosen to confirm whether the moment of inertia values are the same irrespective of angular speeds. Moreover, the estimated inertial parameters (i.e., the mass, center of mass and moment of inertia) of the elbow attachment and the disk-like 3 kg-weight were compared with solutions of uniform square cube and solid disk, respectively. As a result, the values of moments of inertia of the elbow attachment were 0.216 ± 0.017, 0.215 ± 0.016 and 0.216 ± 0.017 kg·m² at angular speeds of 240, 270 and 300°/s, respectively. The values of the moment of inertia of both the attachment and weight were 0.821 ± 0.054, 0.823 ± 0.058 and 0.824 ± 0.053 kg·m² at angular speeds of 240, 270 and 300°/s, respectively. There were no significant differences among the speeds. The estimated inertial parameters of the attachment or the weight were very similar to the theoretical values. Therefore, it is expected that the developed method has the potential to estimate inertial parameters of a human body segment and to improve the accuracy and reliability of the studies on human dynamics.