A technique for simulating the motion of the knee in three dimensions.

This paper describes a novel modeling technique for simulating the motion of the knee joint in three dimensions. For a given range of flexion, the envelope of passive knee joint motion is determined by applying additional translations and rotations necessary to maintain Force Balance in the joint. An initial application of this Force Balance technique has been implemented in MATLAB on a Sparc 10. Results of this application, which describes the knee's motion in the sagittal plane based on the ACL, PCL, MCL, and LCL, are presented here. This model is applicable to the analysis of ligament loss, damage, and repair, and can be adapted to include muscle forces in order to simulate joint motion under load.