Researchers at the University of Calgary’s human performance laboratory like to run wild with ideas —then turn them into reality.
At the lab’s recent annual open house, researchers turned the tables on the public by asking visitors to use their imaginations.
Think of a tiny man inside a computer, running all day long testing different running shoes, they said. Then imagine that you’re the one inside the computer, trying on different shoes to fit your athletic needs.
Sound far-fetched? Not at all. In fact, it’s near reality, part of a $1-million research package being delivered in March to sportswear giant Adidas.
For the purposes of this project, the tiny man in the computer is one-legged and has no arms. He does have a torso and head – they’re just not visible in the software program.
“What we’re building is a robot that not only simulates human movement but emulates human reactions to different footwear,” says Darren Stefanyshyn, assistant professor of biomechanics in the lab.
“It has to not only move like a human, but sort of think like a human.”
Over the last two years, researchers have been developing the automated footwear testing system in the lab at the U of C’s faculty of kinesiology.
The immediate goal is to allow Adidas to analyse footwear prototypes and understand the stresses created on the body’s lower extremities.
To do this researchers have created two distinct software components that are linked by one computer.
One component is the brains. This software contains a computer model of the shoe being tested. It’s also where the tiny man, the virtual running model, resides. The model is based on segments of the human anatomy that will record the impact of the stresses created on the body’s lower extremities by various running motions.
The second component is a robotic platform and boot. The boot is fitted with different footwear prototypes and is placed on a newly developed mechanical platform that creates a variety of movements — running fast or jogging slowly, for example — which simulate the reaction of a shoe striking the ground.
When a shoe is being tested, the brains tell the robotic platform what motions to exert, and information is quickly sent back and forth.
As the shoe is put through its trial on the robotic platform, a videotape records the movement of the shoe. In addition, a load sensor records the forces and torques on the simulated ankle joint. That information is sent to the brains.
As the virtual model walks, runs, cuts laterally and so on, stresses on its body — as far up as the hips — are calculated.
Using mathematical equations, the model allows researchers to investigate the forces on its muscle groups, tendons and the loading in the joints of the lower extremities, says researcher Gerald Cole.
“You can change the shoe and predict what the effects are going to be on how the human body moves and what the loading will be,” he says.
Adidas is a partner in the project along with the lab. Other partners include the Alberta Research Council, Precarn (a national robotics consortium) and Biomechanigg, a private biomechanics research company.
Adidas will be the first shoe manufacturer to use the technology.
Each year Adidas considers dozens of footwear prototypes that must be tested by humans and, if approved, then brought quickly to market. Human testing, says Stefanyshyn, is costly, time-consuming and not necessarily reliable because 10 people may react 10 different ways to one pair of shoes.
The U of C technology will conform to a set of standards that objectively measures the prototypes and weeds out shoes that are not up to grade.
Eliminating 10 or 15 prototypes at the initial stages would provide considerable savings, says Stefanyshyn.
Once Adidas receives the technology, the lab will recreate it, continue fine-tuning it for further research and applications, offer support to Adidas and consider possible sales to other shoe manufacturers.
The lab’s goal, adds Cole, is to represent individuals in the computer model. “The foot is a complex structure,” he says. “Everyone is built differently and reacts differently to various footwear.”
One natural progression of the project will likely be to provide clinicians with more objective information in the design of orthotics.
Similar to the shoe concept, Cole envisions a clinician taking some simple measurements of a subject, creating a model of that person in the computer and then designing an orthotic in the computer to test how that person moves.
“With the way computing power is going, they’ll be able to run a simulation in a couple of minutes, make revisions and run another simulation,” says Cole.
The model also allows for ethical research, he adds. For example, researchers can simulate an ankle sprain in the model, but they couldn’t do that with a human tester.
“You can actually change the design of the footwear to see if you can change that potential for injury,” he said.
Researchers acknowledge their greatest challenge is making sure the two software programs communicate effectively.
As that aspect continues to evolve, they say further applications are just a matter of imagination.
* History: Started in 1981 at the University of Calgary under current director Benno Nigg. Began with four researchers; now has a staff of 80 from 17 countries.
* Goal: To understand the basics of human mobility for the benefit of the general public.
* Budget: $3 million annually. Funded by the U of C (25 per cent), granting agencies (35 per cent) and outside groups and private industry (40 per cent).
* Clients: Some past and present include Adidas, Nike, Mizuno, Nordica, Salomon, Taylor Made, Dept. of Defence, Dr. Scholl’s, Head and Reebok.
Web Watch:
www.biomechanigg.com
