Modelling Skeletal Muscle-Tendon Units as Actuators in Motor Behaviour: Morphological Aspects

This paper discusses a number of morphological aspects of skeletal muscle and muscle-joint lever system that should be considered when modelling skeletal muscles as actuators of the bodies' motor system. It is recognised that, to implement muscle models in whole body models, these should be relatively simple. Thus, whenever possible, relatively simple algorithms are proposed that describe the major impacts of the morphological features of muscle on their mechanical behaviour. This way, it should be possible to model and describe the mechanical properties and behaviour of skeletal muscle in a more realistic way, without compromising the simplicity of models.