Effect of Two Different Pose Estimation Approaches on Lower Extremity Biomechanics in Professional Dancers

Different algorithms can be used to estimate the pose of musculoskeletal models in biomechanical studies. Visual 3D uses segment optimization whereas OpenSim uses global optimization. Thus, our purpose was to study whether the two approaches would influence the estimation of lower extremity biomechanical parameters. Marker trajectories and ground reaction forces of 6 professional dancers were collected during a single-leg forward jump-landing. The same data set was processed using both approaches. Our findings suggested that the sagittal knee and ankle angles and moments were highly comparable between the two approaches. The ankle sagittal angle and moment showed the lowest offset. On the other hand, the choice of a kinematic model was likely to affect the hip, more evident in the frontal and transverse planes. This may be due to different factors such as the pelvis and femur positions or larger amount of soft tissue in the thigh.