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IJCST
32,1
132
Received 26 March 2018
Revised 20 September 2019
Accepted 30 September 2019
International Journal of Clothing
Science and Technology
Vol. 32 No. 1, 2020
pp. 132-147
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0955-6222
DOI 10.1108/IJCST-03-2018-0041
Prediction of clothing mobility
using a musculoskeletal simulator
Yosuke Horiba, Ayumu Tokutake and S. Inui
Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Ueda, Japan
Abstract
Purpose – Mobility is one of the important elements in clothing design. The purpose of this paper is to
examine the predictability of clothing mobility via musculoskeletal simulation.
Design/methodology/approach – In order to carry out the musculoskeletal simulation considering the
influence of clothing, simulation of the dressed state was attempted. This paper simulated the dressed state
and measured the motion-related deformation of the clothing to estimate the force applied to the human body
based on the material property of the clothing samples. The dressed state was simulated using an external
force in the musculoskeletal model.
Findings – When the elbow flexion torque with an elbow supporter was calculated using the
above-mentioned method of musculoskeletal simulation, it was confirmed that the lower the stretchability of
the sample, the higher the elbow flexion torque. In addition, the sensory evaluation performed under the same
condition as that in the simulation showed that the lower the joint torque during the motion, the higher the
subjective mobility, and that the higher the joint torque, the lower the subjective mobility. Thus, it is
suggested that musculoskeletal simulation of the dressed state can predict the clothing mobility.
Research limitations/implications – However, the method proposed in this paper requires the
measurement of the deformation of the clothing to estimate the force applied to the human body. Thus, it is
difficult to apply this in the measurement of general clothing that allows enough space between it and the
human body, requiring further improvement of the dressed state simulation method.
Originality/value – Because it is difficult to estimate the force applied by the clothing to the human body,
only a few studies have performed analysis on the effect of clothing by using musculoskeletal simulation.
Conversely, although the force applied by the clothing to the human body needs to be estimated in advance by
the measurement of the deformation, the utility of the simulation in clothing design seems to be high because
the simulation can estimate clothing mobility and the effects of clothing on muscle activity.
Keywords Sensory evaluation, Joint torque, Clothing mobility, Musculoskeletal simulation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Clothing mobility is one of the most important factors that affect clothing comfort. Recently,
improvements have been made to clothing materials, patterns, sewing, etc., and products
pursuing mobility, mainly for sportswear, protective clothing and garments for the elderly,
are placed on the market (Kanakaraj and Ramachandran, 2015; Nayak et al., 2014; Sau-Fun
et al., 2011). However, while the details of the properties and size of clothing are standardized
in Japan Industrial Standard, etc. neither a quantification method nor an assessment scale
has been established for clothing mobility. Thus, each manufacturer has its own standard of
design/assessment of mobility.
Several studies have attempted to quantify clothing mobility in such circumstances.
These studies can generally be classified into two groups: studies that used psychological
values obtained via sensory evaluation as indices (Satoh et al., 1998; Satoh and
Kobayashi, 2000; Kanai et al., 2007) and studies that used physiological values
(e.g. electromyography data, joint angle and center of mass sway) as indices (Inomata
et al., 1992; Okada, 2004; Ishigaki and Inomata, 2007; Shimosaka, Nakada, Ishigaki and
Inomata, 2008; Shimosaka, Ishigaki and Inomata, 2008; Watanabe et al., 2009). These
previous studies are important in that they attempted to quantify clothing mobility. There
are some problems with the quantification. First, in the sensory evaluation, the cause of
the evaluation result is not always clear. Second, in the physiological measurement, it is
difficult to measure the movement accurately (Robertson et al., 2004), and the relationship
between movement and muscle activity is not necessarily clear. Third, because each Prediction of
method requires an actual measurement of the dressed state, product assessment before clothing
trial production is impossible. mobility
Thus, we focused on joint torque, which has been used as an index of human
body movements in the field of biomechanics to establish the method of
quantification/assessment of clothing mobility using it as an index. The joint torque
outlined in the next chapter has a couple of advantages: first, the biomechanical 133
interpretation and measurement of the joint torque are easier to perform than the
conventional method described above; and second, joint torque enables quantitative
measurement of muscle group functions during the movement. In our previous
basic study, we used motion measurement and sensory evaluation to examine the
relationship between joint torque and clothing mobility (Horiba et al., 2015). Specifically,
we simulated the state of being in a compression wear and examined the relationship
between joint torque and mobility during elbow flexion and extension with clothing
samples with different stretchability attached to the elbow. The results showed that the
higher the joint torque power, the lower the mobility, suggesting joint torque as an
effective quantitative index of clothing mobility.
Recently, in the field of biomechanics, there are many studies on musculoskeletal
models that simulate the musculoskeletal structures of the human body on a computer
(Chao, 2003; Damsgaard et al., 2006; Rajagopal et al., 2016). Motion simulation using
musculoskeletal models enables the estimation of the above-mentioned joint torque.
Many studies have used musculoskeletal models to examine the effects of products
(e.g. automobiles, prosthetic joints and medical aids) on the human body (Bae et al., 2010;
Crabtree and Higginson, 2009). However, musculoskeletal simulation of clothing
movements has seldom been performed because it is difficult to formulate the influence
of clothing. Thus, the musculoskeletal simulation of joint torque during clothing
movements enables the estimation of clothing mobility on a computer. In addition, virtual
experiments, which are an advantage of such a simulation, enable mobility prediction and
model-based designing before trial production.
Based on the above-mentioned background, this paper examined the predictability of
clothing mobility via musculoskeletal simulation. The dressed state was reproduced in the
musculoskeletal simulation to estimate joint torque during the motion. Thereafter, the utility
of the musculoskeletal simulation in mobility estimation was verified by comparing the
results of the simulation with those of the sensory evaluation, which was performed under
the same conditions.

2. Joint torque
2.1 Definition
The human body motion can be approximated to bone rotations with the joint as
the rotation axis. The rotational motion is due to the torque at the joint generated by the
muscle tension acting on the tendon-to-bone attachment. Joint torque is defined as
the torque at the joint that generates rotational motion. For example, as shown in Figure 1,
the knee joint torque during knee flexion refers to the net effect of all joint forces (i.e. the
muscle tension of the knee flexor muscle group acts on the bone attachment point,
causing joint torque around the knee joint and thereby knee flexion). Although
joint torque is not muscle strength itself, it is widely used as an index of muscle activity
and muscle strength in the field of biomechanics and ergonomics (Eng and Winter,
1995; Shimada et al., 2004; Sugama et al., 2010; Robert et al., 2014). Although motion
information, such as acceleration/angular velocity in each part of the body, is required to
estimate joint torque, it can be measured comparatively easily via a noninvasive approach
(e.g. motion capture).
IJCST Joint
32,1
Knee
Extensors
Knee
134 Flexors

Muscular
Force
Joint
Torque
Figure 1. Bone
Function of knee joint
torque for lower limb
movement: muscular
force acts on a point
where the muscle
attaches to the bone
with the result that
joint torque is
generated around knee Note: •, solid line and dotted line represent joint, bone and muscle,
respectively

2.2 Joint torque calculation

In general, the rigid link model (i.e. a model in which each part of the body is regarded
as a rigid body, and each rigid body is connected by the joint) is used to calculate joint
torque during the motion. Specifically, following inverse dynamics, each joint torque is
calculated by setting an equation of translational and rotational motions for each segment
of the rigid link model and sequentially solving the equation starting from the terminal
segment. Herein, we describe the procedure to calculate elbow joint torque, using that in
the upper limbs as an example. Figure 2 shows a free-body diagram of the upper
limbs. First, an equation of motion of the hand (i.e. terminal segment) was set.
Equations (1) and (2) are equations of translational motion and rotational motion around
the center of mass at time t:
F1 ðtÞþm1 g ¼ m1 a1 ðtÞ; (1)

I 1 x_ 1 ðtÞ ¼ r0 ðtÞ  F1 ðtÞþT1 ðtÞ: (2)

Hand

T1
1
Upper –F1 r0
F3 arm F1
F2 2
–T1
r1
–T2
T3 r4 3
r2
r3 Forearm
Figure 2. y
Free body diagram for T2
upper limb motion x
–F2
In the equation of the translational motion, wrist joint force F1 can be calculated if the Prediction of
acceleration a1 and the mass m1 acting on the hand are known. Joint torque T1 around the clothing
wrist joint was calculated by plugging the hand angular acceleration x _ 1 , position vector from
the wrist joint to the center of mass r0, moment of inertia I1 and joint force F1 calculated from
mobility
Equations (1) into (2). Next, elbow joint torque was calculated as follows: as in the case with
the hand, Equations (3) and (4) were set. These equations use inverse vectors resulting from
the force and torque generated by the adjacent segments by action and reaction: 135
F1 ðtÞþF2 ðtÞ þm2 g ¼ m2 a2 ðtÞ; (3)

I 2 x_ 2 ðtÞ ¼ r1 ðtÞ  ðF1 ðt ÞÞþr2 ðtÞ  F2 ðtÞT1 ðtÞþT2 ðtÞ: (4)

If the acceleration a2 and mass m2 acting on the forearm are known, the elbow joint force F2
can be obtained by plugging the wrist joint force F1 into Equation (3). Thereafter, the elbow
joint torque T2 was calculated by plugging the forearm angular acceleration x _ 2 , position
vector r1 from the center of mass to the elbow joint, moment of inertia I2, elbow joint force F2
obtained from Equation (3), and wrist joint torque T1 into Equation (4). For reference, a flow
chart showing the above-mentioned calculation procedure is shown in Figure 3.

2.3 Musculoskeletal simulator

This paper calculated joint torque during the motion using OpenSim (Delp et al., 2007),
which is one of the musculoskeletal simulators that simulate the musculoskeletal system.
OpenSim allows users to create/visualize a musculoskeletal model freely. In addition,

Start

Measurement of Estimation of
Acceleration (a) Mass (m)

Calculation of
Joint Force (F)

Measurement of
Angular Acceleration ( )

Estimation of Center of Mass (r)

and Inertia Moment (I)

Calculation of
Joint Torque (T)
Figure 3.
Calculation procedure
for joint torque
End
IJCST OpenSim enables the estimation of muscle strength and joint torque on a computer by
32,1 entering data on motion and external load into the musculoskeletal model. It is used in the
field of biomechanics, ergonomics, sports engineering and medicine.
OpenSim performs inverse dynamics calculations to obtain joint torque. Specifically, as
described in the previous section, OpenSim calculates reaction force/torque between each
segment sequentially from the terminal segment using the equation of motion, assuming the
136 human body as a rigid link model. It uses an optimization method to improve calculation
precision in actual inverse dynamics calculation; however, the description is omitted in this
section. For details, please referDelp et al. (2007) for OpenSim.

3. Experiment
3.1 Experimental conditions
In general, material properties and the space between the human body and the clothing are
known as factors that affect clothing mobility. In this study, we performed an experiment in
the upper limbs under the following conditions, particularly focusing on the material
properties of the clothing. As shown in Figure 4, the participants wore an ~20-cm elbow
supporter, and they flexed their elbows from 0° to 90° in 1 s. To vary the clothing mobility, the
above-mentioned motion was performed five times for each of the three types of samples with
different tensile properties. Figure 5 shows the tensile properties along the axial direction and
circumferential direction for each sample measured using a tensile and shear tester (KES-FB1-
A). In this figure, sample A is the least stretchable, followed by samples B and C. Regarding
the anisotropy of the tensile property of each sample, the tensile properties along the axial
direction were lower than those along the circumferential direction. A similar motion was
measured in the control group without a supporter. A total of ten healthy patients in their 20s
were included in the study. They wore a short-sleeved T-shirt to avoid hindering elbow
flexion. The experiment was conducted in a laboratory at a temperature of 23°C.

3.2 Motion measurement

In the musculoskeletal simulation, the acceleration/angular velocity of each part of the human
body was measured to simulate the motion (arm flexion) of the participants. Prior to the
measurement, each center of mass of the hand, forearm and upper arm was estimated using a
regression equation for body segment inertial parameters (Ae, 1992). Thereafter, the magnetic
motion sensor MVP-RF8 (Micro Stone Co., Nagano, Japan) was attached to each segment’s
center of mass to measure the acceleration and angular velocity during the movement in a

Figure 4.
Experimental trial: the
subject bends the
elbow wearing the
supporter in 1 s
 (a) Prediction of
Sample A Sample B Sample C
500
clothing
mobility
400
Force (gf/cm)

300

200 137
100

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Elongation (%)

(b) Sample A Sample B Sample C

500

400
Force [gf/cm]

300

200

100

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Elongation (%) Figure 5.
Tensile properties of
Notes: (a) Tensile property at axial direction; (b) tensile property at each sample
circumferential direction

sampling period of 5 ms. The angular velocity was converted into a joint angle by performing
time integration after the measurement. An example of an elbow joint angle obtained via the
measurement of the movement is shown in Figure 6(a). Figure 6(b) shows the results when the
joint angle data from Figure 6(a) were entered as the movement data. The figure also shows
that the musculoskeletal model simulated the participants’ arm flexion.

3.3 Musculoskeletal model individualization

As shown in Figure 6, this paper used a model simulating the musculoskeletal system of the
upper arm to examine elbow joint flexion. This is a musculoskeletal model (model name:
arm26) in OpenSim 3.2. This model simulates the muscles (e.g. upper arm muscles/biceps
muscles/triceps muscles) and bones (e.g. ulna/radius forming the forearm and humerus
forming the upper arm) that work in forearm flexion. Owing to the individual differences in
body size, it was desirable to adjust the musculoskeletal model according to each
participant’s body size to improve the accuracy of the simulation. Thus, this paper
individualized the musculoskeletal model using the following procedures.
3.3.1 Scaling. The first step in the individualization of the musculoskeletal model was
model scaling. Scaling refers to changing the size of each part of the musculoskeletal model.
Scaling can be performed using OpenSim Scale tool. Specifically, the size in the
musculoskeletal model can be changed by adjusting the distance between the markers in
each part of the model. The musculoskeletal model of the right arm in this paper uses
markers in three parts: shoulder, elbow and wrist. To adjust the musculoskeletal model
IJCST (a)
32,1 100

Elbow Flexion Angle (°)

80

60

138 40

20

0
0 0.5 1
Time (s)
(b)

Figure 6.
Motion measurement
and simulation for
elbow flexion Notes: (a) Movement measurement example of elbow flexion;
(b) simulation of elbow flexion using measurement data

according to the body size of the participants, scaling was performed with the distance
between the shoulder-elbow markers as the upper arm length and the distance between the
elbow-wrist markers as the forearm length of the participants. Figure 7 shows that the
upper arm length was shortened by scaling.
3.3.2 Adjustment of inertial properties. Following the scaling, the mass and the moment
of inertia of each part of the participants’ body were applied to the musculoskeletal model.
Because it is difficult to measure the inertial properties of an organism directly, this paper
used the estimation equation for the inertial properties of each part of the body (Ae, 1992) to
estimate the mass and the moment of inertia. By applying the estimated inertial properties
to the OpenSim musculoskeletal model, the inertial properties were also individualized.

3.4 Measurement of the deformation

To calculate joint torque in the upper limbs with clothing, the force applied from the sample to
the human body should also be estimated. This paper estimated the force applied by the
samples based on the material properties of the samples by calculating the movement-related
deformation of the samples during the movement via three-dimensional (3D) deformation
measurement. Specifically, the motion-related deformation of the supporter was measured
using the non-contact 3D optical motion and deformation sensor ARAMIS (GOM mbH,
Braunschweig, Germany, GOM mbH, 2006) in a sampling period of 50 ms; thereafter, the
tension of the samples was estimated on the basis of the tensile properties of the samples
 (a) (b) Prediction of
clothing
mobility

139

Figure 7.
Example of scaling for
musculoskeletal model
Notes: (a) Original model; (b) scaled model

measured by the tensile tester KES-FB1-A described in Section 3.1. Figure 8 shows the
deformation of the samples measured using ARAMIS. As shown in the figure, ARAMIS can
measure not only the deformation itself but also the direction of the deformation. In addition,
as described in Section 3.1, the tensile properties along each direction (see Figure 9) in addition
to the axial/circumferential direction were measured to improve the estimation accuracy of the
force applied from the samples to the human body. Thereafter, the force applied from the
samples was estimated on the basis of the tensile properties corresponding to the measured
direction of deformation. By using the estimated force in OpenSim as an external load applied
to the musculoskeletal model, the musculoskeletal simulation can take the effect of clothing
into account. Figure 10 shows an example where the estimated force was used as input in the
musculoskeletal model. The figure also shows that the higher the deformation of the sample
during flexion, the higher the force applied by the sample to the human body.

3.5 Joint torque estimation

For joint torque estimation, OpenSim Inverse Dynamics tool was used. The Inverse Dynamics
tool calculates joint torque during the movement with inverse dynamics calculation based on
the data on movement and external load entered into the musculoskeletal model. For reference,
a flow chart showing the above-mentioned calculation procedure is shown in Figure 11.

3.6 Sensory evaluation

To estimate the mobility of the samples during elbow flexion (see Section 3.1), an assessment
was performed using the paired comparison method (a modified version of Nakaya’s method).
After sequential left and right elbow flexions using different types of samples, the participants
assessed the subjective stretchability, sense of restraint and mobility of the samples on a
seven-point scale. For each participant, the presentation order of the samples was randomized.
Because it is difficult to assess the subjective stretchability without wearing the samples, the
participants used three types of samples before assessing them.
IJCST (%)
40
32,1
36

140 32

28

24

20

16

12

8
Figure 8.
Example of 3D
deformation 4
measurement by
using ARAMIS

0°(Circumferential Direction)
500
30°
400 60°
90° 60°
Force (gf/cm)

90°(Axial Direction)
300 30°

0°
200
Figure 9.
100
Measurement results
of elongation property
at each direction 0
(Sample A) 0 10 20 30 40 50
Elongation (%)

4. Results and discussion

4.1 Joint torque
Figure 12 shows a typical example of elbow joint torque during flexion calculated by the
musculoskeletal simulation. The figure shows that joint torque increases with the start of
movement and peaks in the vicinity of or around 1.0 s at which the elbow is fully flexed.
 Prediction of
clothing
mobility

141

Figure 10.
Example of applying
force estimated by
deformation
measurement to
musculoskeletal model

Individualization of Musculoskeletal Model

(Scaling, modification of inertia characteristics)

Simulation of Motion
(Creation of motion file)

Simulation of Clothing Condition

(Application of external load to musculoskeletal model)

Figure 11.
Calculation of Joint Torque Flow diagram of joint
(Inverse Dynamics Calculation) torque calculation
by OpenSim

This seems to be due to elbow flexion against the tension of the sample and the weight
(gravity) of the forearm, which increase with elbow flexion. The coordinate system used in
this experiment (Figure 2) suggests that the flexor muscle group (e.g. biceps muscle) was
dominant during the movement because the joint torque is positive.
To examine the effects of the samples on the elbow joint torque during the movement, the
maximum and mean values of elbow joint torque among the samples were compared
(Figure 13). The results of the one-way ANOVA showed a significant main effect of the
samples for the maximum and mean values (maximum value: F (3, 27) ¼ 13,665.46; mean
value: F (3, 27) ¼ 13,448.00; p o0.01 for both). In addition, the results of the multiple
comparisons using the Bonferroni correction suggest that the maximum elbow flexion
IJCST 5
32,1

Elbow Joint Torque (N • m)

4

3
142
2

1
Figure 12.
An example of 0
elbow joint torque
during the motion 0 0.5 1
Time (s)

torque decreased in the order of samples A–C and without a sample and that the lower the
stretchability of the sample, the higher the maximum/mean elbow flexion torque. As
mentioned above, this seems to be because the lower the stretchability of the sample, the
higher the tension, leading to the generation of a higher joint torque against it.

4.2 Sensory evaluation

The average degree of preference scores of each evaluation item on mobility obtained
via the sensory evaluation are shown in Figure 14. The figure also shows that the higher
the values, the higher the subjective stretchability, restraint and mobility of the sample.
The results of the ANOVA showed a significant main effect of the samples for all
evaluation items (subjective stretchability, F (2, 27) ¼ 211.91; sense of restraint,
F (3, 27) ¼ 329.46; mobility, F (3, 27) ¼ 199.35; p o 0.01 for all). These showed a
tendency that the higher the stretchability of the sample, the higher the subjective
stretchability and mobility. Conversely, regarding the sense of restraint, the lower the
stretchability of the sample, the higher the sense of restraint. The results of the test of no
correlation showed a significant positive correlation between the subjective stretchability
and mobility (r ¼ 0.967, p o 0.01) and significant negative correlations between the
subjective stretchability and sense of restraint (r ¼ −0.886, p o 0.01) and between mobility
and sense of restraint (r ¼ −0.9523, p o 0.01).

4.3 Relationship between joint torque and mobility

This section discusses the relationship between joint torque and mobility obtained via the
sensory evaluation. Figure 15 shows scatter plots for all patients with the maximum joint
flexion torque on the horizontal axis and each sensory evaluation score (i.e. stretchability,
sense of restraint and mobility) on the vertical axis. A typical paired comparison
summarizes the assessment results as the average degree of preference scores. Thus, the
order statistics of each sample (Kanda, 2004) was used as the value on the vertical axis to
understand the evaluation tendency in each participant. Conversely, because there were
large individual differences in the maximum joint torque, the deviation (i.e. increment in this
experiment) in the joint torque without a sample from the maximum joint torque was used
for each participant. As shown in Figure 15(c), the higher the maximum joint torque, the
lower the mobility. The test of no correlation showed a strong negative correlation between
the two (r ¼ −0.867, p o0.01). Similarly, joint torque showed a significant correlation with
 (a) Prediction of
5 clothing
** ** mobility
Max Elbow Joint Torque (N • m)

**
4

143
3

0
Sample A Sample B Sample C Control

(b)
5
Mean Elbow Joint Torque (N • m)

3 ** **
**

0 Figure 13.
Sample A Sample B Sample C Control Comparison results
of elbow joint
torque power among
Notes: **p < 0.01. (a) Maximum elbow joint torque; (b) mean elbow the samples
joint torque

the sense of restraint (Figure 15(b)) and the subjective stretchability (Figure 15(a)) (r ¼ 0.835
vs r ¼ − 0.871, respectively; po0.01 for both). In the regression analysis of the maximum
joint torque and mobility evaluation items (i.e. subjective stretchability, sense of restraint
and mobility), a second-order polynomial regression model produced the best fit (coefficient
of determination R2: 0.802, 0.853 and 0.865, respectively). In addition, as well as the
maximum torque, the mean joint torque showed a significant correlation with the mobility
evaluation items (r ¼ − 0.846 for the subjective stretchability, r ¼ 0.880 for the sense of
restraint and r ¼ − 0.846 for mobility; p o0.01 for all).
These results are consistent with those of relevant previous studies (Ishigaki and
Inomata, 2007; Horiba et al., 2015), suggesting that musculoskeletal simulation of clothing
IJCST (a) (b)
32,1 Sample A Sample B Sample C Sample A Sample B Sample C Control

** ** ** ** **

–2 –1 0 1 2 –2 –1 0 1 2
144 Average Degree of Preference Average Degree of Preference

(c)
Sample A Sample B Sample C Control

** ** **

Figure 14.
Comparison results –2 –1 0 1 2
of average degree Average Degree of Preference
of preference among
the samples
Notes: **p < 0.01. (a) Subjective stretchability; (b) sense of restraint; (c) mobility

(a) (b)
Sample A Sample B Sample C Control
Sample A Sample B Sample C
3 3
y = 4.6267x 2 + 0.7337x–1.4068
y = –19.216x 2 +13.707x –1.2863
R 2 = 0.85
Subjective Stretchability

2 R 2 = 0.80 2
Sense of Restraint

1 1

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
–1 –1

–2 –2

–3 –3
Deviation of Max Elbow Torque Deviation of Max Elbow Torque
from the Control (N • m) from the Control (N • m)

(c)
Sample A Sample B Sample C Control
3

2 y = –5.5138x 2 +0.2567x +1.2169

R 2 = 0.86
1
Mobility

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
–1

–2

Figure 15. –3 Deviation of Max Elbow Torque

Relationship between from the Control (N • m)
maximum joint torque
and impression Notes: (a) Max Joint Torque vs Subjective Stretchability; (b) Max Joint Torque vs Sense of
Restraint; (c) Max Joint Torque vs Mobility
conditions can predict clothing mobility. Because it is difficult to calculate the force applied Prediction of
by the clothing to the human body, only a few studies have performed clothing analysis. clothing
Conversely, although the force applied by the clothing to the human body needs to be mobility
estimated in advance by the measurement of the deformation, the utility of the simulation in
clothing design seems to be high because the simulation can estimate clothing mobility and
the effects of clothing on muscle activity.
However, to perform mobility estimation via musculoskeletal simulation, some problems 145
remain to be solved. The most significant problem among them is the simulation of the
dressed state. To perform musculoskeletal simulation of the dressed state, this paper
estimated the force applied by the samples based on the movement-related deformation of
the samples during the movement via 3D deformation measurement. However, this method
seems to be effective only with clothing fitting the skin. In other words, in the case of general
clothing, which allows space between the human body and the clothing, it is difficult to
measure the conditions of contact between them. Thus, even if the force applied to the
clothing can be estimated through the measurement of clothing deformation, it is difficult to
perform musculoskeletal simulation of the dressed state because it is also difficult to know
on which part of the body the force is applied.
As mentioned in Section 1, one of the advantages of predicting clothing mobility via
musculoskeletal simulation is that virtual experiments can predict clothing mobility before
trial production. However, the method proposed in this study requires the actual
measurement of the deformation of clothing to estimate the force applied to the human body.
Thus, since it requires real clothing, it is currently impossible to predict the mobility of a
product before trial production.
As described above, the most significant problem is how to estimate the force applied
by the clothing to the human body. One of the solutions may be clothing simulation.
Clothing simulation is a numerical computation technique that predicts clothing
conditions based on the clothing patterns, material properties of the fabric and human
body shape. This has also been proposed as one of the methods to estimate the force
applied to the human body by the clothing (e.g. clothing pressure) (Zhang et al., 2002).
Thus, by entering the data of the force applied by the clothing to the human body
estimated in clothing simulation into the musculoskeletal model, it is possible to perform
musculoskeletal simulations of the dressed state without actual measurement. This will be
reported in another paper in the future.

5. Conclusions
To investigate the utility of the estimation of clothing mobility via musculoskeletal
simulation, this paper examined the relationship between joint torque during the movement
that was estimated using musculoskeletal simulation and mobility that was obtained using
sensory evaluation. To simulate the effects of clothing on the movement in the
musculoskeletal simulation, the force applied to the human body by the clothing, which was
estimated by the measurement of clothing deformation, was entered into the
musculoskeletal model as an external force. The analysis showed that the lower the
stretchability of the clothing, the higher the joint torque during the movement. In addition,
the joint torque showed a strong correlation with mobility, such as ease of movement. This
suggests that musculoskeletal simulation of the dressed state allows the estimation of
clothing mobility. Therefore, this approach may have other end uses, for example, in the
medical field for compression garments, orthopaedic support and 3D bandages, for military
and special forces and for performance clothing. However, as described in Section 4.3, there
remain problems to be solved: first, the simulation of the state of being dressed in clothing
that allows enough space between it and the human body; and second, the mobility
estimation before trial production of clothing.
IJCST Since this paper used relatively simple clothing conditions, future studies should perform
32,1 musculoskeletal simulation under more realistic clothing conditions using the estimated
force applied to the human body by the clothing.

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Corresponding author
Yosuke Horiba can be contacted at: horiba@shinshu-u.ac.jp

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