Kinematics of Lower Limb Segments during Cycling Session

Abstract

This paper presents the kinematics of the leg-bicycle five-bar linkage system mechanism including foot segment. Kinematics is very important in the analysis of rigid bodies system whenever theoretical analysis is being sought especially in bicycle-leg linkage mechanism. A lot of experimental works has already been carried out on lower limbs segments biomechanics during cycling which involved the use of positions of the lower limb segments, but there has not been a complete theoretical analysis of the lower limb segments positions in the literature. Therefore, there is need for a complete kinematics of the bicycle-leg linkage mechanism which includes the position analysis of the lower limb segments. The position, velocity, and acceleration equations were derived and the profiles of the thigh, shank and foot segments were plotted against crank angles. It was found that the profiles obtained are reasonable and agrees with experiments.

Keywords: Cycling; Five-bar linkage; Kinematics Analysis; Lower Limb Segments.