A method for estimating joint load at a joint of a segment. The method
comprises the steps of receiving kinematic data, determining a modified
acceleration using at least the kinematic data, estimating a joint load
using at least the modified acceleration; and determining simulated
kinematic data for the segment using at least the joint load. The present
disclosure thus addresses the problems with conventional inverse dynamics
analysis by providing a forward dynamics solution for estimation of joint
loads that is stable, guaranteed to converge, computationally efficient,
and does not require acceleration computations. According to one
embodiment, a joint load is estimated using an approach of closed form
dynamics.