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Biomechanics

By Prof. Varadhan   |   IIT Madras
Learners enrolled: 937   |  Exam registration: 9
ABOUT THE COURSE:
This course introduces Biomechanics to students from all backgrounds in engineering. The course builds a foundation in mechanics, introduces biological terminology and builds on this foundation to introduce static analysis, postural analysis and gait analysis. Further, this course discusses mechanics of biomaterials – both hard and soft tissues. Advanced concepts like Visco-elastic properties of soft tissues are also discussed. The course uses a novel pedagogical approach, the learner centric MOOC (LCM) approach

INTENDED AUDIENCE: B.E./B.Tech (Biomedical Engg) students, M.E./M.Tech (Biomedical Engg) students, MS/Ph.D. (Biomedical Engg) students

PREREQUISITES: High school physics & mathematics. Kindly note that this course does NOT assume knowledge of Engg Mechanics and Strength of Materials.
Summary
Course Status : Upcoming
Course Type : Core
Language for course content : English
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Biological Sciences & Bioengineering
  • Bioengineering
Credit Points : 3
Level : Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date : 20 Jan 2025
End Date : 11 Apr 2025
Enrollment Ends : 27 Jan 2025
Exam Registration Ends : 14 Feb 2025
Exam Date : 04 May 2025 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.


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Course layout

Week 1: Introductory Mechanics – Statics and Dynamics – Basic Principles.

Week 2: The human body as a biomechanical system – basic terminologies – Skeletal Muscles

Week 3: Mechanism of force production in skeletal muscles – Sliding filament theory – Force-length relationship.

Week 4: Biomechanical analysis of joints of upper limb - Shoulder, Elbow, wrist, hand and fingers

Week 5: Biomechanical analysis of joints – Spine, Hip, Knee, Ankle.

Week 6: Analysis of reaching as movement of a multi-link serial chain – forward kinematics, inverse kinematics – D-H parameters –Velocity and Jacobians

Week 7: Mechanics of Hard Tissues – Bone microstructure – properties of bone – Wolff’s law of bone remodelling – Elastic properties and stress-strain relationship – Bending of bones

Week 8: Visco-elastic properties of soft tissues, Models of visco-elasticity: Maxwell, Voight, and Kelvin models – Viscoelasticity in bones.

Week 9: Soft Tissues – Cartilages, ligaments and tendons, Stress-strain relations in tendons – tendon forces and factors affecting tendon properties –Gliding resistance, tendon wrapping and friction forces – enslaving.

Week 10: Introduction to enslavement – Enslaving effects in finger force production (Research paper) – Wrist posture and finger interdependence (Research Paper)

Week 11: Measurement of orientation in 3D space – Rotation matrices – Composite rotation matrix and relative orientation – Complex numbers and quaternions

Week 12: Singularity, Gimbal lock, parameterization – Practical applications – IMU based finger and hand kinematics measurement system – Introduction to stability and Gait analysis.

Books and references

1.David A. Winter, Biomechanics and Motor Control of Human Movement .
2.Margareta Nordin and Victor H. Frankel, Basic Biomechanics of the Musculoskeletal System.
3.Francisco Valero-Cuevas, Fundamentals of Neuromechanics.
4.Susan Hall, Basic Biomechanics.
5.Irving Hermann, Physics of Human Body.

Instructor bio

Prof. Varadhan

IIT Madras
Prof. Varadhan SKM is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engg at IIT Madras. His research interests are in the area of Neural control of movements, Motor learning, and Dexterous object manipulation in the presence of static and dynamic perturbations (See website for more details). He teaches courses on Biomechanics, Neuromechanics, Engg Mechanics, Biomedical Instrumentation, Quantitative Physiology.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: May 4, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team


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