Pragmatic Musculoskeletal Modelling

This handbook sets you up with an open-source software environment and describes how you can use it to do interesting things with musculoskeletal models.

The OPynSim team maintains this project. In contrast to OPynSim’s documentation, this focuses on getting things done using any combination of open-source (esp. Python) projects from the wider ecosystem (contributions welcome). Therefore, while some tasks may indeed use OPynSim, others may use NumPy, OpenSim, OpenSim Creator, etc. when it’s the most pragmatic way to get something done.

Prerequisites

This handbook assumes:

• You can install/setup things on your computer.

• You know how to install Python packages from the command line (e.g. pip install numpy).

• Some familiarity with the Python programming language.

The content will try to explain some of these things in passing, but the explanations won’t be as comprehensive as a dedicated guide. In those cases, we will link to external resources. Alternatively, LLMs are very good at solving general technical problems (e.g. “how do I install OpenSim into my Python environment”), so try that if something doesn’t make sense. External contributions (e.g. clarifications) to this handbook are also welcome.

Handbook Structure

• Setup: Installing/configuring a computer for musculoskeletal modelling.

• Concepts: General concepts/techniques that apply to many problems/tasks.

• Guides: Guides that focus on solving a specific problem/task.

• Examples: Standalone examples that perform a specific task.

• Meta: Meta documentation for this handbook.

For readers that are new to musculoskeletal modelling, we recommend that you start by setting up your system (at least, with the core software) and skimming over some concepts before tackling a guide or example, so that you encounter fewer technical issues and understand what’s going on.