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diff --git a/doc/introduction.tex b/doc/introduction.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc78116 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/introduction.tex @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +\chapter{Introduction} + +Controlling and learning to control movements of a many degree of freedom system such as the human body is a non-trivial task. This problem is famously known as Bernstein's problem \cite{Bernstein1967}. + +Complex movements of humans (and other animals) are thought to develop based on a simple, rudimentary set of building blocks -- commonly called motor primitives -- during ontogenetic development \cite{Flash2005, Hart2010}. Contrary to the hitherto belief that these innate simple reflexes get completely replaced by more complex ones with age, a recent publication by Dominici et al. \cite{Dominici2011} shows that certain basic patterns of muscle activation are instead retained and are being built upon during development in order to achieve a variety of walking movement behaviours. + +This project thesis attempts to investigate the role such locomotor primitives play in the development of human biped walking by building a muscoloskeletal simulation model in the OpenSim software \cite{Delp2007} and then applying the basic activation patterns at different stages of human development (neonate, toddlers, preschooler and adults) identified by Dominici et al. \cite{Dominici2011} to it. + +\TODO{Describe steps taken and goals of the individual steps.}
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