Mathematics of Human Motion: from Animation towards Simulation (A View form the Outside)

TL;DR

This paper reviews the mathematical approaches to human motion simulation across various disciplines, offering an outsider's perspective to connect different fields and highlight common challenges and methods.

Contribution

It provides a broad, interdisciplinary overview of human motion simulation from an outsider's perspective, bridging gaps between fields like biomechanics, robotics, and animation.

Findings

Identifies common mathematical frameworks used across disciplines

Highlights the importance of simulation in understanding human motion

Suggests potential for interdisciplinary collaboration

Abstract

Simulation of human motion is the subject of study in a number of disciplines: Biomechanics, Robotics, Computer Animation, Control Theory, Neurophysiology, Medicine, Ergonomics. Since the author has never visited any of these fields, this review is indeed a passer-by's impression. On the other hand, he happens to be a human (who occasionally is moving) and, as everybody else, rates himself an expert in Applied Common Sense. Thus the author hopes that this view from the {\em outside} will be of some interest not only for the strangers like himself, but for those who are {\em inside} as well. Two flaws of the text that follows are inevitable. First, some essential issues that are too familar to the specialists to discuss them may be missing. Second, the author probably failed to provide the uniform "level-of-detail" for this wide range of topics.