OpenSim Simulates Human Movement with Robotics

Professor of orthopedic surgery Scott Delp developed OpenSim in 2007. He said his long-term goal is to create simulation tools that could be applied to address important clinical problems. Delp developed the project as part of SimTK, an online host for software from the National Institute of Health’s Center for Biomedical Computation at Stanford (SimBios),which allotted money to fund the OpenSim project.

According to Delp, one of the researchers’ objectives was to “help biomedical researchers understand biological form and function as they create novel drugs, synthetic tissues, medical devices and surgical interventions.” Scientists have already used the tool to benefit patients. For example, researchers used OpenSim to estimate how knee and hip joints are loaded during everyday movements...