AN ESTIMATION OF CENTER OF GRAVITY FROM

FORCE PLATFORM DATA

TAKESHI SHIMBA
Research Institute. National Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled. 4-1, Namiki. Tokorozawa. Saitama.
Japan

Abstract-A general, dynamic relationship between the data obtained from a force platform. center of gravity
of the body on the platform and the time rate ofchange ofmoment ofmomentum of the body about its center
of gra! Ity was derived from principles of dynamics for a system of particles. The derived equations are useful
for processing and interpreting the force platform data. Displacement and path ofcenter of gravity of human
body during standing on one foot and level walking were estimated by using the derived equations. An
estimation of the time rate of change of moment of momentum of the body was also obtained. A
biomechanical interpretation of point of application of the resultant of ground reactions was presented.

NOMENCLATURE 1. INTRODCCTION

lxp+ -G~,,/~,,) or (.vp+ zGFor Fez) Force platforms for measuring ground reactions have
svstematic error of u been widely used in biomechanical and clinical re-
fr,,or F,, searches, for example. in studies of human locomotion
supporting force of j-th transducer
sum of F,; resultant of ground reactions (Elftman. 1934; Bresler and Frankel, 1950; and
component of F, Yamashita and Katoh, 1976), in studies of athletic
.YGor yG activities (Payne et al., 1968; Cavanagh and Lafortune,
estimated value of G
1980) and in studies of standing and other related
H;l F,, or Hi.1 F,,
estimated value of H activities (Murray er al.. 1967: Terekhov, 1978).
time rate of change of moment of momen- The data obtained from the force platforms, together
tum of a body about center of gravity of the with other kinematic data. have been used for describ-
body ing features of the human activities and analysing
Hi or fi,
component of ir’
mathematical models of a human body or parts of the
mass of total body human body (Cappozzo et al., 1975). The ground
mass of k-th particle in the body reactions and point of application of the resultant of
resultant torque about 0 the ground reactions themselves have been often used
component of N,
as measures for studying human activities (Jacobs er al.,
component of N, parallel lo F,
component of N, perpendicular to F, 1972; Yamashita and Katoh. 1976; Alexander and Jayes.
Reference frame fixed on a force platform 1980; Cavanagh and Lafortune, 1980). but the bio-
xp or yp mechanical relationships between these values and
X- and j,-coordinate of point of application
other biomechanical parameters such as center of
of resultant of ground reactions,
respectively
gravity of the body and the angular momentum of the
position vector (see Fig. l(b)) body have not been explained so clearly.
position vector of center of gravity of the In this paper a general relationship between the force
body platform data, center of gravity of the body on the
position vector of k-th particle in the body
platform and the time rate of change of moment of
relative position of rx with respect to center
of gravity of the body momentum of the body about its center of gravity were
position vector of j-th transducer derived from principles of dynamics for a system of
initial condition of position particles. The derived equations allow us to interpret
Definite integral term in equation (14) the force platform data and to estimate center of
time
sampling interval of data gravity of the body and other mechanical parameters.
acceleration of center of gravity Some experiments were carried out to validate the
initial velocity usefulness of the derived equations where center of
gravity force (body weight) gravity of the body and the time rate of change of
component of r,
moment of momentum of the body during standing on
component of rc
one foot and level walking were estimated by using the
equations and curve fitting method. Biomechanical
meaning of point of application of resultant of the
Received 28 .Yopember 1982: in rerisedform 4 June 1983. ground reactions was also discussed.

53
 54 TAKESHI SHIMBA

2. BASIC MECHANICAL CONSIDERATIONS Then, the vector r, is represented as

2.1. Equations for a force plafform system r, = F, x N,/IF,l*

Although various types of force platforms have been which is written in scalar form as
developed and used, a force platform consisting of a
rigid top plate and force transducers which are able to x, = (F#or -F,J’Joy)llFoIZ (2)
measure three orthogonal components of applied Y. = (F,,N,, - F,N,,)/IF,l* (3)
forces is considered here. An orthogonal reference
z, = (F,,N,,-F,,N,,)IIF,l*. (4)
frame U-xyz is defined fixed to the plate as shown in
Fig. la. The supporting force of j-th transducer (Sj) is The equation of the screw axis is represented as
designated by vector Fj acting at the point of which
x-x, Y-Y. z - z,
position vector is rsj. ---_=--- =- (5)
The system of the supporting forces can be reduced Fo,IIF,I F,,IIF,I ~,,IIF,l
to a set of a single resultant force F,(F,,, Fey, F,=) where F,,/IF,I, F,,./IF,I and F,,/IF,( are direction
acting at the origin 0 and a single resultant torque cosines of vector F,.
N,(N,,, N,,, N,,), where F, = ZjFj and N, = Ejrsj The point of application P(x,,);,O) can be de-
x Fj, and the set of the resultant force and torque can termined by putting zero into z in equation (5) and
be reduced to a single screw force by selecting a suitable using equations (2), (3) and (4)
line ofaction of the force. The point at which the line of
action of the screw force intersects the upper surface of XP = x, - z,f’,IF,,
the plate is so called point of application of the
- F,, No, Fox‘N,, - F,, F,,N,,
= Fo,Noz
resultant.
The position of point of application can be de-
IFA2 - ForlFo12
termined as follows. Decompose the torque vector N, YP = J, - z,FoylF,,
into two components, N, parallel to F,, and N,
perpendicular to F, (Fig. lb) and consider a vector = FA’, - FoxNo, F,Fa, A’,, - Fe,Nm
r,(x,, y,, z,) perpendicular to both F, and N, and IFA - F,,IF,12 ’
satisfying the following equation When F,, and F,, are sufficiently small compared with
F,,,,~F,~ 2 F,,, Fo,IF,z << 1 and F,,IF,, 4 1, then xP
ra x F, = N,.
and y, can be approximately represented by
Since these three vectors are perpendicular to each
xp = - NwIF,, (6)
other,
YP = NJ F,, (7)
Ir,l.lF,I = lNRl (1)
which are usually used for calculating the point of
where each term represents the magnitude of each
application in force platform studies.
vector. Then, the line 1 passing through the point
defined by r. and parallel to the vector F, gives the 2.2. Equations for a body on the platform
screw axis, the line of action of the screw force, because
A body on the platform is considered to be a system
F, x r, = -N,. Now consider a vector product F,
of particles where position vector of k-th particle of
x N,. Because its direction is the same as that of ra and
mass m, is denoted by rt, position vector of center of
the magnitude is equal to that of F, x N,, then
gravity of the system is denoted by rG(xG, yG, zc) and
IF, x N,I = IF,/ lNRI, and from equation (1)
relative position of the k-th particle with respect to
Ir,I = IF, x N,lilF,l*. center of gravity of the system is denoted by r; (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Resultant force system acting on the body on a force

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic representation of a force platform and platform (not drawn). The body is considered to be a system
reference frame. Only the position of j-th transducer (S,). of particles where m, represents mass of k-th particle and c.g.
position vector of S,(r,j) and supporting force at S,(F,) are represents center of gravity of the system (see list of
drawn. (b) Determination of screw axis (1) (see nomenclature). nomenclature).
 An estimation of center of gravity from force platform data 55

The resultant of ground reactions is denoted by F, earlier, whereas G relates to twice integration of the
acting at the origin of a reference frame 0-xyz and the acceleration as described below.
resultant torque of ground reaction forces about origin The equation of linear motion of center of gravity of
0 is denoted by N,. The gravity force acting at the the body is represented by the following differential
center of gravity of the body is denoted by W. equation with time variable r
Then. the moment of F, about the center of gravity is
d*G(t)
equal to - (rG x F,), and total torque of external forces ___ = u(t) (15)
dt’
except drag (which is not considered here) about the
center of gravity is where u represents the acceleration ofcenter of gravity
of the body which is equal to FOX/M. F,,/M or (F,,
N, - (ro x F,). - W)/M for respective direction where M is mass of
The total torque about center of gravity of the system total body and W is gravity force. The solution of the
of particles is equal to the time rate of change of the above equation can be written as follows
moment of momentum of the system about center of
gravity of the system (Housner and Hudson, 1959).
then:

N,-(roxF,)=tiI’ (8) = r,+u,t +S(t) (16)

ahere h’ represents the time rate of change of the
moment of momentum (angular momentum) of the
body about center of gravity of the body and equal to
.X&r;x ?n,&.
The equation (8) represents a fundamental relation-
ship between the resultant force and torque of ground
reactions, center of gravity of the body and the time rate
of change of angular momentum of the body about its
center of gravity, and can be rewritten in scalar form as
N,, = JjoF,: - ZoFoy + 8:
N,, = z~Fox -xGF~~ +Bk
No, = x~Fo, -ycF,,+fi;.
Using equation (6) and (7), the x- and y-coordinates of
the point of appIication are represented as follows
xP = xG-zGF,,/F,,-Ei;/F,,
j’p = .I’G-+FoyiF,z +i$IF,:
or they can be rewritten in the following form
-yc = x~+z~F~JF~~+H;JF,,
!‘G = .Vp+ z$,,/F,, - H:IF,,.
where r-e and v,, are unknown initial conditions, r refers
to position, u refers to velocity and S represents the
definite integral term with variable t which can be
calculated from force platform data and provides
another estimate of G.
The curve S(t) and E(t) calculated from measured
data can be fitted by using curve fitting by least squares
to obtain an estimated curve of G(t), or G(t) where an
estimated value of rD and ur, can also be obtained.
The value of zG, the height of center of gravity of the
(9) body, is available from the literature, for example, it is
(10) described that the center of gravity of the human adult
lies in the mid-line at a distance from the ground
(II)
corresponding to about 55% of the total stature and
total amount of vertical displacement of the center of
gravity during level walking in normal adult males is
about 4.57 cm and its highest value is about 1.27 cm
(12) smaller than the height of the center of gravity in
(13) standing posture (Saunders er al., 1953).
The vertical displacement of the center of gravity can
also be estimated by using the method of integration
(12’) and curve fitting described above where the curve S(r) is
fitted to the line represented by z(r) = 0.
(13’)

2.3. Es!imatioti of cenfer ofgravity of the hod>

From equations (12’) and (13’) x- or y-coordinates of
center of gravity of the body can be represented in a
simplified form as
G=E+H
where G represents -5c or y,, E represents (xp
+ zGF~~/F~~) or (yp+zGFo,,/Foz) and H represents
fib/F,, or - fi;/F,,, respectively. E can be calculated
from force platform data except that the value of zo
cannot be determined exactly which will be discussed
later.
The term E gives a rough estimate of G accompanied
with H as an error term of which frequency com-
ponents are much higher than those of G because H
relates to the time rate ofchange ofangular momentum
of the body which contains acceleration term as stated
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The equations and methods described in the preced-
ing section were applied to force platform data ob-
tained from normal subjects during standing on one
(14)
foot and level walking to estimate displacement or
fluctuation of center of gravity of the body and time
rate of change of angular momentum of the body about
its center of gravity.
The data were obtained from four normal male
subjects during standing on one foot and from two
normal male subjects during level walking. During
standing on one foot, the subjects were requested to
clasp their hands lightly behind their back and to touch
their raised foot at the standing leg with their eyes open
or closed. The measurements were carried out for
about 10-30 s. On the measurements in walking, the
56
subjects were requested to walk in such a manner that
two foot prints could be recorded on the force plat-
form. Foot prints were also obtained in the study of
walking by using the similar method to Cavanagh’s
(1978) using chalk powder.
The ground reactions were measured by a force
platform (Kistler InstrumentsAG) with a 100 x 100 cm
top plate and four piezo electric transducers which were
connected with charge amplifiers of which output
signals were: F,, (= F,, + F,, + F,, + F,J, F,, (= F,,
+F,,+Fys+F,Jr F~I, Fz2, F,, and F,, where sub-
scripts 1,2,3 and 4 refer to the four transducers. These
signals were A/D converted with sampling rate of
66.6 Hz, stored in memory and processed in a mini-
computer (PDP-12). The raw data and processed data
were displayed on CRT and x-y recorder via D/A
converter.
The vertical component of the resultant of ground
reactions was calculated by: F,, = F,, + F,, + F,,
+ F,,. The x- and y-components of resultant torque
were calculated by
N,=a(F,,+F,,-F,,-F,,)-cF,,
N,, = - a(F,, - F,, - F,, + FnJ + cF.,x
where u represents the absolute value of x- and y-
coordinates of each transducer (all having the same
value in this case), and c is the z-coordinate of the
transducers. Then, x- and y-coordinates of point of
application were calculated by using equations (6) and
(7).
Since the data of horizontal force components
contained some systematic errors of zero-shifts, u(t) in
equation (16) was described as:
Uc+E, 11,+e, u* +s, . . . , UN-i+&
in digitized form where N is the number of data to be
processed and E represents the systematic error. Then,
the equation corresponding to equation (16) was
written as
i(i - 1) i-l
G = r,+u,r~i+r2~T+~* 1 (i-k)u,
L=o
i=O,1,2 ,..., N-l
where r is the sampling interval.
Then, the curve fitting of S(t) with E(t) was carried
out by using least squares with three unknowns ro, u.
and E.
In calculation of E in equation (14) for the data of
standing, the value of zc, the height of center of gravity
of the body, was assumed to be fixed value, that is, 55 y0
of total stature of the subject. It was estimated that the
vertical fluctuation of center of gravity of the body was
within about 2.54 cm or less in the case of this study,
then, the above assumption would introduce about 3 %
of errors into the results.
In processing of the data of walking the time varying
value of zo was used which was obtained by using the
integration and curve fitting method described in the
preceding section where the mean value of zo was
TAKESHI SHIMBA
determined as 52% of total stature of the subject
referring to the description of the literature cited above
(Saunders et al., 1953) and the result of the estimation.
Figure 3 shows examples of the estimated displace-
ment of center of gravity (G) in the x-direction (medial-
lateral) calculated from the data obtained from a
subject during standing on left or right foot with eyes
open or closed in dotted curves. The solid curves in the
left side of the figure represent the fluctuation of point
of application and solid curves in the right side
represent the curves of E in equation (14). As shown in
Fig. 3 the fluctuation patterns in a comparatively long
period (say, several seconds) of these three curves
obtained from the same experiment are similar to each
other but the curve E shows closer resemblance to the
curve G.
It is observed from Fig. 3, for example, that the
amplitudes of fluctuation of G (dotted curve) in trace b
and dare approximately in the same range (about 2 cm)
but the fluctuation of curve E in the trace d is much
larger than that in the trace b. That is, these traces show
more detailed characteristics of the fluctuation of the
body during standing activities. The difference between
curve d and curve E provides an estimation of H in
equation (14), or l?, which relate to the angular
momentum of the body.
From equations (12) and (13) the time rate of change
of the angular momentum can be represented in
simplified form as
#if = (G - P)F,, - zcFh (17)
where fi’ represents fii; or -hi, P represents xp or JP,
18
Fig. 3. Typical result of calculation of force platform data
obtained from a normal subject during standing on one foot:
L.O. (traces a and b), standing on the left foot with eyes open;
L.C. (c and d), standing on the left foot with eyes closed; R.O.
(eand f), standingon the right foot with eyes open; R.C. (g and
h), standing on the right foot with eyes closed. Bold, dot@
curves represent estimated center of gravity of the body (G.
see text), solid curves in the left side (a, c, e and g) represent
pointofapplication (P)and solidcurvein the right side (b,d. f
and h) represent the curve E in equation (14) (see text).
R.O.

R.C.

G-P

Fig. 4. Curves of each term in equation (17) divided by Fob,calculated from the data shown in Fig. 3. The
meanings of abbreviations L.O., L.C., R.O. and R.C. are same as those of Fig. 3.

57
 An estimarion of center of gravity from force platform data 59

Table 1. Root mean squares (RMS) of each curve shown in

Fig. 4. a__l;_e
c----e -.. y-
XL _-

_-E
L.O. 0.169 0.346 0.374 X____~__ p

L.C. 0.336. 0.646 0.524

R.O. 0.346 0.306 0.343 1 Ocm
R.C. 0.472 0.600 0.440
Fig. 6. Paths in x-y plane (horizontal plane) of curve fI?,E and
P obtained from the data shown in Fig. 5.

and F, represents F,, or F,, respectively. The first term

of the right side of equation (17) represents the
contribution of the vertical component of the resultant
of ground reactions to fi’ and the second term, the
contribution of the horizontal component.
Three curves of A. zGF,/F,, and (6 - P) which relate
to each term of equation (17) calculated from the data
of Fig. 3 are shown in Fig. 4. It can be observed that
each pair of tlie curve z,F,/F,, and (6 - P) in Fig. 4
has such a feature as to reduce the amplitude of the
curve I?. The root mean squares (RMS) of each curve in
Fig. 4 are shown in Table 1. These values may be used
as an index of stability of standing activities in individ-
ual test situations.
In Fig. 5 the curves t?, P and E in x-(medio-lateral)
value for normal level walking. The curves of fi. (G
-P) and zCFh/For are shown in Fig. 7 where the
amplitudes of the curves of i? are relatively small
compared with other two curves in each direction.
They-r curve of e in Fig. 5 can be approximated by a
straight line, that is, the velocity of progression of
center of gravity of the body is assumed to be nearly
constant. Then, equation (13) can be written as
yp = 5,~ - zGF,,IF,, +ti:/F,,
where 0, represents the mean velocity of the center of
gravity in y-direction. Differentiation of each term of
the above equation with respect to time gives

1
and y-(antero-posterior) direction calculated from the d
;T;YP = t;,- $ kiF,,IF,,) -; V%lF,,)
data obtained from a subject during level walking are
shown. The curve t? in z-(vertical) direction is also
In the case where progression is in a positive y-
shown in the bottom of the figure where zero of z-
direction, GYbecomes positive in normal walking and if
coordinate corresponds to the mean value of zG. As
shown in Fig. 5 the curve E is better approximation of d d
curve G than curve P. The paths of these threecurves in “, < z (z,F,,IF,,) -Z (fi:lF,:)
x-y plane are shown in Fig. 6 where the interval of each
time mark (0, o, and x) corresponds to 0.15s. then, (d/dt)y, becomes negative which means the point
The estimated initial velocity in y-direction of this of application, y,, moves backwards. This phenom-
case was - 104.2 cm s-’ which may be a reasonable enon will occur when the positive slope of the curve
z~<,~/F,, is very steep and the slope of the curve fi (=
-Zf>/F,,) is positive or descends very gently. With
appropriate inversion of signs the same can be said for
negativedirection of the progression. It can be said that
the backward motion of the point of application is
related to some jerk or impact occurred to the body.
The phenomenon can be observed either during walk-

c 55

Fig. 5. Typical traces ofcurve d (x-, y- and z-direction), Pand

E (x- and y-direction, refer to equation (14)) calculated from Fig. 7. Curves of each term in equation (17) divided by F,,
the data obtained from a normal subject during level walking. calculated from the data shown in Fig. 5.
60 TAKESHI SHIMBA
ing (Yamashita and Katoh, 1976) or running
(Cavanagh and Lafortune, 1980).
4. CONCLUSIONS
The biomechanical relationships and equations pre-
sented in this study will provide a new point of view for
interpreting and analysing the data obtained from force
platforms which is expected to provide useful clinical
indexes for evaluating human activities. To advance
clinical applications, more detailed and comprehensive
analyses of individual data should be done.
Since the force platform data and other mechanical
parameters are related to each other three-
dimensionally, all three components of resultant force
and torque should be measured for analysing overall
characteristics of human motion. Furthermore large
scale force platforms (say, 1.5-2.0 m) or a set of several
number of platforms will provide more useful informa-
tion about biomechanical aspects of human activities.
Acknowledgements-The author wishes to thank Dr. Ichiro
Tanaka for critical reading of the manuscript of this paper.
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