The MALL consists of a combination of state of the art laboratories for the analysis of movement.
It provides essential infrastructure to the core research interests of both the Department of Biomedical Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences in understanding of human motion in health and disease, covering the range from elite sport performance to patient rehabilitation.
Funded mainly by the Hercules foundation, a state – of – the art measurement infrastructure is now available at Faber (Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences). The infrastructure integrates equipment to measure three-dimensional segmental movement using 3D motion capture systems, reaction forces using force plates and muscle activity using surface electromyography (EMG).

This integrated motion capture facility allowing integrated analysis of human movement will give an important impulse to further expand our expertise in the understanding of human movement. It creates new opportunities to further our fundamental research activities in human movement and posture analysis as well as our translational research towards movement rehabilitation of several patients groups on the one hand and elite sport performance on the other hand.
This interdepartmental research laboratory is an initiative of Prof. Duysens, Prof. Jonkers and Prof. Verschueren.

MALL has two functional units:

A MOVEMENT ANALYSIS UNIT AND A POSTURE ANALYSIS UNIT.

All elements of the two units are fully compatible and can be integrated – if needed – into an integrated 16 camera motion capture set-up with 5 force plates and 24 channels surface EMG.

Movement analysis unit:

The purpose of this unit is to measure three-dimensional (3D-) segmental movement, ground reaction forces and muscle activity during gross motor activities (gait, jumping, upper limb motion…). For the analysis of gait, overground walking as well as treadmill walking can be analyzed. For the latter, a split-belt treadmill allows the independent control of the gait speed of the individual legs.

To measure 3D segmental movement, a 10 Vicon camera system is in place that measures the 3D position of passive markers placed on the test-subject to quantify orientation and rotation of the body segments. By combining the information of adjacent segments, joint angle trajectories can be calculated.

To measure ground reaction forces, 3 AMTI force plates are integrated in the walkway. These quantify the 3D interaction forces between the test-subject and the ground during functional motion (e.g. gait or jumping). To accurately measure impact forces during sports activities, one force plate with specific high frequency characteristics is in place. Furthermore, an instrumented split-belt treadmill (Forcelink) is present allowing to measure bilaterally the ground reaction forces during treadmill walking.

To measure muscle activity during locomotion, surface electrodes are attached the skin overlying the muscle belly. In this way, muscle function can be evaluated through the analysis of the timing and amplitude of the electrical activity coinciding with force generation. A wireless, surface electromyography (EMG-) system (Zerowire) measures the activity of up to 16 muscles without interfering with locomotion.

Posture analysis unit:

Central in the set-up of this unit is the CAREN motion base. This 6DOF motion base allows evaluating postural control in a virtual reality scene by imposing standardized perturbations through platform rotations or translations around any axis. Simultaneously, three-dimensional (3D-) segmental movement, ground reaction forces and muscle activity can be measured.

• To measure 3D segmental movement, a 6 Vicon camera system is in place that measures the 3D position of passive markers placed on the test-subject to quantify orientation and rotation of the body segments. Combining the information of adjacent segments, joint angle trajectories can be calculated.
• To measure ground reaction forces, 2 AMTI force plates are integrated in the motion base. These quantify the 3D interaction forces between the test-subject and the ground during postural control.
• To measure muscle activity, an 8 or 16 wireless channel surface electromyography (EMG-) system can be integrated (Zerowire). Therefor, surface electrodes are attached the skin overlying the muscle belly. In this way, muscle function can be evaluated through the analysis of the timing and amplitude of the electrical activity coinciding with force generation.
• To increase the perceived immersion of the subject in the virtual world, an integrated surround sound system is present. The projection of the virtual environment is carried out by a front projection system.

For postural control experiments in which the application of perturbations is less crucial, an additional and separate posture analysis set-up is available: Integrated measurement of surface EMG and ground reaction forces can be supplemented with information on muscle oxygenation using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS).