Neural Computing and Applications

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-019-04658-z (0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Learning inverse dynamics for human locomotion analysis

Petrissa Zell1 • Bodo Rosenhahn1

Received: 5 March 2019 / Accepted: 3 December 2019

Ó Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
In this work, learning-based inverse dynamics algorithms are proposed for the analysis of human motion. Immeasurable
joint torques and exterior contact forces are directly estimated from motions by machine learning techniques including
deep neural networks, random forests and Ridge regression. A multistage subclass approach is introduced. The method
recovers occluded motion data and generates meaningful features, as well as gait phase labels to restrict and facilitate the
regression of forces and moments. In contrast to the state-of-the-art inverse dynamics optimization, the learning-based
methods are independent of ground reaction force measurements and the global position and orientation of the human
body. These properties make the application to reconstructed poses from videos or inertial measurements possible, creating
fast and simple access to the underlying dynamics of recorded human motions. The performance of the proposed methods
is evaluated on a self-recorded data set including walking and running motions and on a publicly available gait data set by
Fukuchi et al. (PeerJ 6:e4640, 2018). Furthermore, the applicability to reconstructed gait sequences taken from the well-
known CMU database (Human motion capture database, 2014. http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/) is investigated. Finally, the
method is tested as a tool to detect abnormal torque distributions in gait, based on a reconstructed 3D motion of a limping
subject.

Keywords Inverse dynamics  Deep neural networks  Human locomotion  Gait phase detection

1 Introduction
In recent years, machine learning and especially artificial
neural networks have significantly increased the ability to
investigate human motions based on videos or inertial
sensor data. This development introduces access to a huge
amount of information about human activities and behav-
ior. An extensively researched objective is the recon-
struction of human 3D poses from images [1, 24, 26, 45],
from 2D joint positions [23, 28, 39] and from inertial
measurements [21, 22]. The gained knowledge about body
joint trajectories can be used to classify the observed
activity [5, 11, 18, 19]. One mostly unexplored question in
This work was supported by the European Research Council
(ERC) under the ERC-2013-PoC Grant (No. 1924-2013).
& Petrissa Zell
zell@tnt.uni-hannover.de
Bodo Rosenhahn
rosenhahn@tnt.uni-hannover.de
1
Institute for Information Processing, Leibniz University
Hannover, Appelstr. 9a, 30167 Hannover, Germany
this regard is: Can we take another step forward and use
machine learning to gain insight into the physical proper-
ties and forces that drive the observed motions?
The knowledge about the underlying dynamics of the
human locomotor system is essential for biomechanical
research in diagnostics of locomotor disorders, rehabilita-
tion design and monitoring [25, 32]. In this context, the
torques acting at the skeletal joints are used as the primary
measure for effort, strain and overall healthiness of human
movement. They provide a fundamental concept to the
study of physical impairments and the development of
treatment methods [6, 16]. Even in sports research, this
concept is applied to analyze crucial motion patterns
regarding their effectiveness and their strain on the human
locomotor system, e.g., the free kick in football [10].
Inverse dynamics is an established tool to infer joint
torques from an observed motion [31, 41]. The torques are
calculated inversely from the motion of a physical model
and the exterior forces using dynamical equations. The
problem is generally solved by optimizing the observed
joint trajectories under a number of constraints, e.g., on the
resulting ground reaction forces and moments (GRF&M).
An inherent disadvantage of such an optimization approach

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is the high computational cost, which makes it unsuit-
able for real-time feedback applications. Furthermore, the
system of equations given by the dynamics is overdeter-
mined during double support. Therefore, the exterior forces
either have to be known from measurement or deduced
from heuristics and prior knowledge to obtain an exclusive
solution for the joint torques [42]. In summary, the use of
regression methods to estimate GRF&M and joint torques
could facilitate fast and robust gait analysis outside of
laboratory settings.
To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to
compare several learning-based approaches for regression
of dynamics during the full gait cycle using locomotion
data of multiple human subjects. The proposed methods
can be divided into end-to-end regressions and multistage
subclass methods that are motivated by the frequent criti-
cism of neural networks for their lack of interpretability.
They perform a classification on a set of handcrafted fea-
tures to identify the current motion phase and then infer the
GRF&M and joint torques in the subspace corresponding to
the class label. This way, meaningful features are supplied
and the current contact state is identified. The term sub-
class refers to the gait phases as subcategories of the pri-
mary class, the motion type (e.g., walking). For both, the
end-to-end regression and the subclass method, different
algorithms are tested, including deep neural networks,
random forests and Ridge regression. The quantitative
comparison is conducted based on walking and running
sequences recorded in our own laboratory. Furthermore,
the end-to-end regressions are evaluated on a public data
set by Fukuchi et al. [9].
The proposed methods are designed to perform without
information about the global position and orientation of the
human body. This property makes them applicable to the
results of 3D pose reconstruction algorithms. The appli-
cation to reconstructed 3D motions is demonstrated using
the results from [21, 38]. The motions were reconstructed
from 2D motions of the CMU data base [4] and from
inertial sensor data, respectively.
The contributions of this work can be summarized as
follows:
1. Multiple learning-based methods for solving the
inverse dynamics problem of human motion are
proposed.
2. A multistage subclass approach including regression of
occluded motion data, gait phase classification, contact
feature extraction and control regression is introduced.
3. The subclass methods and the end-to-end regressions
are quantitatively evaluated for walking and running
sequences and compared to data-driven inverse dynam-
ics optimization.
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Neural Computing and Applications
4. The applicability of the proposed methods to recon-
structed motions from the CMU data base is
investigated.
5. The estimated squared torque distribution is used for
abnormal gait detection based on inertial
measurements.
In the following section, related work is presented. In
Sect. 3, the methodology is described. This encompasses
the process of completing a training set of motion capture
data and force plate measurements with optimized joint
torques and the regression algorithms to estimate contact
forces and joint torques directly from motions. In Sect. 4,
the utilized data set is presented and the recording process
is described. In Sect. 5, the proposed learning-based
methods are evaluated and our conclusions are discussed in
Sect. 6.
2 Related work
As mentioned above, dynamical analysis of motion
requires the measurement of GRF&M. Traditionally, the
measurement is realized with force plates that are embed-
ded in the ground. This causes strong limitations on the
recorded motion types since it restricts the recording to a
laboratory setting. An alternative method is the use of foot
pressure insoles [8, 14, 34]. The GRF and the center of
pressure (COP) can be approximated from plantar pressure
data of numerous sensors distributed over the sole.
Although this approach makes it possible to record motions
with contact information in natural situations outside of the
laboratory, the results are not as accurate as force plate
measurements and the recording requires additional sensors
that need to be synchronized with the motion capture
device.
There are modeling approaches that approximate
GRF&M based on the interaction of a physical model with
its environment [7, 15, 29]. The calculation of GRF&M
from the kinematics of a model, however, is strongly
depending on the accuracy of inertial parameters and joint
trajectories. To address this challenge, prior knowledge of
the involved forces can be exploited. Lv et al. [20] use
Gaussian mixture models to model the prior probability
distribution of contact forces and joint torques. The inverse
dynamics problem is then solved in a maximum a poste-
riori framework. A more direct regression approach is
pursued by [3] and [27]. In these works, shallow feedfor-
ward neural networks are applied to estimate the GRF&M
during double support of gait and asymmetric movement.
In a recent work, Johnson et al. [13] use convolutional
neural networks to infer GRF&M from marker trajectories
Neural Computing and Applications

coded as RGB images. The method is applied to body is defined and used in a predictive dynamics approach
sidestepping motions that are common in sports. motivated by [43].
Regarding the particular task of inverse dynamics,
i.e., the estimation of joint torques from motion data, only 3.1 Physical model
a few works have applied machine learning algorithms.
Johnson and Ballard [12] use principal component In this work, a simplified skeletal model consisting of legs
parametrization to code and decode joint angles and tor- and one torso segment is used. The torso segment follows
ques of the gait motion of one subject. The authors test the movement of the center of mass of the whole upper
different mappings between the parameter sets but report body. This is a typical modeling approach for gait motions
high joint torque root mean squared errors of 60 Nm. This [41]. The model is schematically depicted in Fig. 1. It has
might be due to the single-frame approach of [12], which 24 degrees of freedom (DOF) that constitute the general-
cannot capture the acceleration of the considered joint ized coordinates q. This vector is composed of six global
angles. In [47], random forests are used for the GRF and DOF for the position and orientation of the root joint and
joint torque estimation based on a set of manually defined 18 DOF for the skeletal joints. At each foot segment,
motion features. A weakness of this method is the recurrent GRF&M are applied.
overestimation of GRF and joint torques during states The equations of motion (EOM) are formulated using
without ground contact. In the present work, this problem the TMT-method as described in [35]:
is addressed by using a motion phase classification prior to M€
q ¼ s þ JT Mðag  GÞ þ JTc Fc ; ð1Þ
the control regression.
The use of regression methods makes it possible to with inertia matrix M for dependent coordinates and gen-
estimate dynamics from subsets of motion parameters, eralized inertia Matrix
e.g., only describing the 2D projection. This facilitates
MðqÞ ¼ JT ðqÞMJðqÞ: ð2Þ
video-based investigation of forces and torques. Wei et al.
[40] present a keyframe-based animation method to capture
realistic 3D motions from monocular videos and simulta-
neously reconstruct joint torques and contact forces. In
[48], a joint estimation of 3D poses and physical parame-
ters is proposed and used to drive a subsequent forward
dynamics simulation. However, both works do not evaluate
the deviation of estimated joint torques and forces from
ground truth. The focus lies on accurate 3D
reconstructions.
In contrast to the existing works, this study addresses the
combined estimation of GRF&M and joint torques, both
during single and double support phases of human loco-
motion, i.e., walking and running. An end-to-end approach
is compared to a multistage method. Furthermore, the
proposed approach is designed to be applicable to 3D
reconstructions of sensor data by ignoring global transla-
tion and orientation information of the observed motions.
With regard to gait analysis in the wild, this capacity is of
fundamental importance.

3 Methodology

For the training of the learning-based algorithms, data sets

consisting of 3D motion, GRF&M and joint torques are
required. While the training samples for motion and con-
tact forces can be directly obtained from motion capture
Fig. 1 Physical model consisting of 8 body segments, each associated
and force plate data, the immeasurable joint torques have to
with a mass and a moment of inertia. The model possesses 24 degrees
be optimized. For this step, a physical model of the human of freedom (DOF) including six global DOF and 18 joint DOF. The
joint DOF are effected by joint torques

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Here, the Jacobian JðqÞ transforms from generalized
coordinates q to Cartesian coordinates p with p_ ¼ JðqÞq. _ desired parameters includes several steps: First, the entire
The right-hand side of Eq. (1) includes the joint torques s,
the gravitational acceleration ag , the convective accelera-
tion G and the contact force vector Fc , consisting of
GRF&M. The first six components of the joint torque
vector s are set to zero, since they are related to the global
model coordinates.
The convective acceleration is defined as
o   The corresponding normalized segment mass is
_ ¼
Gðq; qÞ JðqÞq_ q:
_ ð3Þ
oq
The contact force Fc is transformed into generalized
coordinates via the contact Jacobian Jc (the section of J
that corresponds to the coordinates of the foot centers of
mass).
In short, Eq. (1) is written as
M€
q ¼ F ðx; uÞ ð4Þ
with the parameter vectors
x ¼ ðqT ; q_ T ÞT ; u ¼ ðsT ; FTc ÞT ; ð5Þ
called model states and model controls, respectively.
3.2 Estimation of inertial properties
In this section, the general form of the inertia matrix M is
presented and the process of estimating its components for
a specific subject from a 3D surface body scan is described.
In the following, all segment masses and moments of
inertia are normalized via division by the total body mass
of the respective subject. Let M s and I s be diagonal
matrices containing normalized masses and normalized
moments of inertia with respect to the local coordinate
frame attached to the parental joint of each segment. Then,
the inertia matrix in the global coordinate frame is given by
 
Ms
M¼ T ; ð6Þ
R0s I s R0s
with the rotation matrix R0s that represents the transfor-
mation from the individual segment coordinate frames to
the global coordinate frame. This total rotation is the pro-
duct of each rotation matrix along the kinematic chain from
the root of the chain to the parental joint of the considered
segment.
In order to define the inertia of a specific subject, the
following parameters have to be determined for each seg-
ment: the normalized mass, the normalized moments of
inertia with respect to the parental joint coordinate axes
and the distance between the center of mass and the par-
ental joint. These properties are estimated from 3D laser
scans that catch surface information of the human body.
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Neural Computing and Applications
The processing of the scans and the estimation of the
scan is manually cut into separate surfaces of the body
segments, and then, volumetric information of each seg-
ment surface is generated using 3D Delaunay triangulation.
The sum of the resulting tetrahedra fvk gk provides an
approximation of the total segment volume
X
Vs ¼ vk : ð7Þ
k
q s Vs
ms ¼ ; ð8Þ
mbody
with qs denoting a literature value for the mean segment
density in the population [41].
For the approximation of the moments of inertia, the
principal axes of the segment are determined from the
surface point cloud. The moment of inertia for the rotation
around a fixed axis x through the segment center of mass is
estimated by
q X 2
Iscx ¼ s v k r xk ; ð9Þ
mbody k
where rxk is the orthogonal distance between the centroid of
volume element k and the considered axis. The sentence of
Steiner yields the moment related to a rotation around a
parallel axis through the parental joint:
Isx ¼ Iscx þ ms rc2s ; ð10Þ
Here, rcs is the applied shift, i.e., the distance between the
axis through the center of mass and the parallel axis
through the parental joint.
3.3 Predictive dynamics optimization
While motion states and contact forces for the training
samples are obtained from measurements, the inner joint
torques have to be estimated using an optimization routine.
For this step, a predictive dynamics approach comparable
to [47] is applied. The controls u as well as the states x are
treated as optimization variables, while the EOM is
included as regularization term.
A motion sequence is divided into overlapping windows
of three frames with an overlap of two frames. This win-
dow length allows for an approximation of states and
controls by second-order polynomials, while still incorpo-
rating sufficient information for the calculation of accel-
erations. The large overlap is chosen to maximize the
number of training samples. The model states and controls
are discretized using Hermite polynomials Hi ðtÞ to reduce
the number of parameters:
Neural Computing and Applications

X
2 X
2 torque profiles. An additional minimization of the quadratic
xðtÞ ¼ ai Hi ðtÞ; uðtÞ ¼ bi Hi ðtÞ ð11Þ torques only results in smaller maximum values but does
i¼1 i¼1 not influence the general shape of the curves. An inclusion
Based on this parametrization, the weighting coefficients of hs in the objective function is beneficial when dealing
a ¼ ða1 ; a2 Þ and b ¼ ðb1 ; b2 Þ become the optimization with fragmentary or noisy input data. The optimization
variables. problem is solved using the interior-point algorithm by
Apart from the EOM regularization, the objective [37].
function encompasses terms to keep the 3D motion states
and the contact properties close to the measured values. For 3.4 Learning-based inverse dynamics
every window, the weighted sum
In this section, two different methods for the regression of
minfw0 hs ðbÞ þ w1 he ða; bÞ þ w2 hx ðaÞ þ w3 hp ðaÞ
a;b control parameters from 3D motion sequences are pre-
ð12Þ
þ w4 hf ðbÞ þ w5 hd ðbÞg: sented. All methods are implemented in Python using the
scikit-learn library [30].
is minimized. The individual terms are defined as follows: In order to facilitate the application to the 3D pose
1X reconstruction results, global translation and orientation
hs ðbÞ ¼ ksðti Þk22 information is not used as input for the regressions.
T i
Therefore, the first step of both approaches is to calculate
1X
hds ðbÞ ¼ _ i Þk22
ksðt motion coefficients that fulfill this requirement: The joint
T i angles and angular velocities of every three-frame window
1X are approximated using Hermite polynomials:
he ða; bÞ ¼ kM€ qðti Þ  F ðxðti Þ; uðti ÞÞk22 ( )
T i
ð13Þ 1 X X
2

1X min  a^i Hi ðtj Þ  x^ðtj Þ : ð15Þ
hx ðaÞ ¼ kxðti Þ  xm ðti Þk22 a^ T j i
2
T i
1X Here, x^ are the motion states, excluding the global trans-
hp ðaÞ ¼ kpðti Þ  pm ðti Þk22 lation, orientation and the linear and angular velocity of the
T i
root joint. They are parameterized by the weighting coef-
1X
hf ðbÞ ¼ kFc ðti Þ  Fcm ðti Þk22 ficients a^. This parameter vector is the starting point for the
T i
following regression steps.
with the duration T ¼ t3  t1 . The first function hs is the
dynamic effort which encourages low-energy movements. 3.4.1 End-to-end control regression
The second term hds is often referred to as jerk. It enforces
smooth torque profiles. To build the derivatives, finite The first approach is a direct regression of control coeffi-
differences are used including the temporally preceding cients b from motion coefficients a^. The implemented
torque vector of the previous window. The term he penal- methods are a neural network, a random forest consisting
izes a deviation from the EOM. Here, the accelerations q€ of 100 trees and a simple linear Ridge regression [33].
from the optimized states x are calculated via finite dif- The neural network is a fully connected deep feedfor-
ferences. The terms hx and hf are included to generate ward network. The network architecture is determined for
states and GRF&M that are close to the measurements xm each training set of the cross-validation procedure sepa-
(motion capture) and Fcm (force plates), respectively. The rately, using exhaustive search. The tested networks have
function hp describes the distance between optimized and 1–3 hidden layers with sizes between 50 and 200 neurons.
measured 3D joint positions. By including both hx and hp ; Sigmoid functions are used as neuron activation, and the
the model configuration is assessed with regard to the joint Adam optimization algorithm [17] is used to train the
angles and their global positions. The global positions are network. The approach is termed as end-to-end control
calculated from the states using Denavit–Hartenberg regression.
matrices [36].
The following weight coefficients are used to balance 3.4.2 Multistage subclass control regression
the individual terms of the objective function:
The second proposed method is a multistage subclass
ðw0 ; . . .; w5 Þ ¼ ð0; 1; 0:1; 1; 1; 1Þ ð14Þ approach, consisting of inference of the missing global
Thereby, the dynamic effort is not taken into consideration, information, feature extraction, classification and finally
since the other terms are sufficient to determine realistic regression of control coefficients. In the first step, termed

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 Neural Computing and Applications

as a-regression, the missing components of a are inferred

from the partial parametrization a^. For this step, the same
regression methods (a neural network, a random forest and
a Ridge regression) are applied and compared. From a; the
full states xðtÞ can be obtained using Eq. (11).
In the second step, additional features that characterize
the contact state of the model are calculated, namely the
vertical distance yc of the contact points to the ground and
the accompanying absolute velocities vc . These values are
averaged over the time span of three frames. The new
feature vector is h ¼ ða; yc ; vc ÞT .
In the third part, a class label l is assigned to the con-
sidered sample. Each motion type is divided into several
phases and a classification task is performed based on h. A
walking cycle is divided into double support left, single
support left, double support right and single support right,
and a running cycle is divided into support left, flight left,
support right and flight right. The applied method is a
support vector classifier with a radial basis function kernel.
It is chosen on account of its simplicity and good perfor-
mance [2].
The final part of the proposed approach is the regression
of control coefficients b from h, given a class label l. This
step is referred to as b-regression. The algorithms are
trained using the respective class subset of feature vectors Fig. 2 Process sequence of the multistage subclass control regression.
as predictors and the class subset of control coefficients as For the red-colored tasks, different methods are implemented and
responses. This task is solved with the same three regres- compared: a neural network, a random forest and a Ridge regression
sion methods as before. The actual controls consisting of
joint torques and contact forces can be computed from b measured using two AMTI force plates which provide the
using the polynomial approximation in Eq. (11). This 3D force and moment vectors and the center of pressure.
method is referred to as subclass control regression. The The inner joint torques are then estimated from the motion
entire process is depicted in Fig. 2. states and the contact properties following the optimization
approach described in Sect. 3.3. The decomposition into
overlapping three-frame windows results in a total of
4 Data recording 10 009 data samples for walking and 3 574 samples for
running. Natural movements were achieved by instructing
The laboratory data set encompasses 88 walking and 74 the subjects to walk and run at different speeds of their own
running sequences executed by 22 healthy subjects. choice and without paying attention to the force plates.
Demographic information can be found in Table 1. All Trials with incorrect placement of the feet on the plates
subjects volunteered to participate in the study and signed were dropped later.
an informed consent form. The study is part of the ‘‘Indi-
vidualized Implant Placement’’ project funded by the
European Research Council (ERC-2013-PoC) and was 5 Evaluation of the proposed algorithms
approved by the ethics commission of the Hannover
Medical School (MHH). In this section, the performance of the proposed inverse
Each subject was scanned with a 3D surface body dynamics algorithms is evaluated. For a quantitative
scanner for the estimation of segment inertial properties. assessment, the recorded laboratory data are used. Differ-
The 3D motions were recorded using a Vicon T-series ent algorithms for the end-to-end regression and for indi-
motion capture system, consisting of eight infrared cam- vidual stages of the subclass method, i.e., for a- and b-
eras. Based on the captured marker trajectories, the motion regression, are compared. In addition, the end-to-end
states xðtÞ are computed using a standard inverse kine- regression methods are contrasted using the public gait data
matics algorithm. The GRF&M were synchronously set by Fukuchi et al.

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sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Table 1 Demographic table of participating subjects Z
1 T
Subject ID Gender Height Weight BMI RMSE ¼ ðu1 ðtÞ  u2 ðtÞÞ2 dt; ð16Þ
T 0
1 M 1.78 93.5 30 RMSE
2 M 1.94 88.8 24 rRMSE ¼ 1 P : ð17Þ
N i2trainset maxðu i ðtÞÞ  minðui ðtÞÞ
3 M 1.86 68.3 20
4 F 1.71 66.6 23 The rRMSE is normalized using the mean ranges in the
5 M 1.80 68.3 21 corresponding training set with N being the number of
6 F 1.73 55.7 19 training sequences. The inferred GRF&M are compared to
7 F 1.69 65.5 23 the ground truth and the joint torques to the optimization
8 M 1.71 61.8 21 results from Eq. (12). In addition, the proposed algorithms
9 M 1.81 67.9 21 are compared to a data-driven inverse dynamics approach
10 M 1.88 74.4 21 by [20]. This approach incorporates physical modeling into
11 M 1.81 79.3 24 a maximum a posteriori framework. Implementation details
12 M 1.85 74.5 22 can be found in ‘‘Appendix 1.’’
13 M 1.67 83.8 30 The achieved error values of the end-to-end regression
14 M 1.85 95.8 28
and the compared optimization approach are listed in
15 M 1.84 68.8 20
Table 2. Table 3 contains the corresponding values for
the subclass approach. It can be seen that the multistage
16 M 1.75 81.4 27
subclass regression clearly outperforms the end-to-end
17 M 1.72 79.4 27
regression for both motion types. The lowest rRMSE
18 F 1.70 68.0 24
values are predominantly achieved by the subclass
19 M 1.80 72.4 22
approach with a random forest for the final estimation of
20 F 1.74 70.5 23
the control parameters b. The chosen algorithm for the
21 M 1.80 83.5 26
regression of global motion parameters a seems to have
22 M 1.79 69.9 22
negligible effect on the final result. This becomes appar-
ent when comparing the values in each column of
Table tab:msespshierarch. For the end-to-end approach,
Furthermore, the performance on reconstructed gait the neural network and the ridge regression achieve
motions taken from the CMU data base is investigated comparable results. Both methods outperform the random
qualitatively. On this data set, a quantitative evaluation is forest for this task. The data-driven optimization method
not possible due to the lack of GRF data and a conse- achieves lower error values, than the end-to-end regres-
quential lack of joint torques. In a final experiment, the sion, but is outperformed by the multistage subclass
application of the learning-based approach is tested as a approaches. The overall outcomes are similar for both
tool for the detection of abnormal gait based on inertial motion types, walking and running.
measurements. To illustrate the mean performance of the different
methods, Figs. 3 and 4 show the regression results of the
5.1 Laboratory data set end-to-end and the subclass method for walking. The cor-
responding results for running are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
The methods are evaluated on the laboratory data set using The figures include the major joint torques, active in
threefold cross-validation. In order to determine hyperpa- human locomotion (sagittal ankle, knee and hip torques), as
rameters, like the network architecture and the activation well as vertical and anterior GRF and sagittal GRM. These
function, each training set in turn is randomly split into are the components with the highest variability of the entire
training and validation set. While sigmoid activation con- control parameters. It can be seen that the subclass
sistently yields the highest validation scores, the network approach is better in predicting control values during
architecture varies between one and three hidden layers frames without ground contact, due to the additional gait
with 50 to 200 neurons. In the case of the random forest, a phase classification.
change in the number of trees had a negligible effect. To contrast the expense of the different methods, com-
The difference between predicted and target curves u1 ðtÞ putation times are measured. Here, only the times related to
and u2 ðtÞ is quantified using root mean squared error the methods with lowest RMSEs are listed. With our end-
(RMSE) and relative RMSE (rRMSE): to-end Ridge regression, mean computation times of 4.7 s
are achieved. The subclass approach (with Ridge a-re-
gression and random forest b-regression) needs 17.9 s, on

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Table 2 RMSEs and rRMSEs of the estimated GRF&M and joint torques
RMSEF (N/kg) rRMSEF (%) RMSEM (Nm/kg) rRMSEM (%) RMSEs (Nm/kg) rRMSEs (%)

Walk NN 1.738 (0.148) 17.1 (1.2) 0.102 (0.012) 13.2 (1.8) 0.140 (0.015) 16.6 (2.8)
RF 2.107 (0.204) 20.1 (1.6) 0.099 (0.008) 11.9 (1.3) 0.155 (0.015) 17.9 (2.4)
Ridge 1.927 (0.246) 18.3 (2.4) 0.080 (0.012) 10.4 (1.7) 0.144 (0.020) 16.1 (2.8)
Lv et al. 0.779 (0.247) 9.6 (2.9) 0.078 (0.029) 9.9 (3.4) 0.072 (0.024) 8.3 (2.3)
Run NN 2.392 (0.297) 13.6 (1.5) 0.131 (0.018) 12.7 (4.6) 0.169 (0.027) 13.3 (4.3)
RF 3.477 (0.803) 17.3 (3.9) 0.156 (0.037) 12.8 (4.7) 0.238 (0.059) 17.1 (5.9)
Ridge 2.237 (0.465) 13.3 (3.0) 0.151 (0.120) 11.0 (4.2) 0.178 (0.041) 13.5 (5.2)
Lv et al. 1.312 (0.491) 9.1 (2.7) 0.168 (0.168) 14.5 (17.8) 0.116 (0.043) 8.3 (2.8)
The table includes the results of the end-to-end regression methods and the data-driven optimization method [20]

Table 3 RMSEs [in (N/kg) or (Nm/kg)] and rRMSEs [in (%)] of the estimated GRF&M and joint torques
a b NN RF Ridge
RMSE rRMSE RMSE rRMSE RMSE rRMSE

Walk NN GRF 0.418 (0.222) 5.2 (2.4) 0.405 (0.210) 5.1 (2.3) 0.422 (0.222) 5.3 (2.4)
GRM 0.046 (0.010) 7.4 (1.9) 0.044 (0.012) 6.9 (2.1) 0.046 (0.016) 7.3 (2.3)
Joint torques 0.062 (0.021) 7.9 (2.8) 0.065 (0.024) 8.0 (2.9) 0.056 (0.021) 6.7 (2.8)
RF GRF 0.418 (0.222) 5.2 (2.4) 0.402 (0.209) 5.1 (2.3) 0.423 (0.223) 5.3 (2.4)
GRM 0.046 (0.010) 7.4 (1.9) 0.043 (0.012) 6.7 (2.1) 0.047 (0.016) 7.4 (2.3)
Joint torques 0.062 (0.021) 7.9 (2.8) 0.063 (0.021) 7.8 (2.8) 0.056 (0.022) 6.8 (2.8)
Ridge GRF 0.418 (0.222) 5.2 (2.4) 0.390 (0.213) 4.9 (2.3) 0.421 (0.221) 5.3 (2.4)
GRM 0.046 (0.010) 7.4 (1.9) 0.041 (0.012) 6.5 (2.0) 0.046 (0.016) 7.3 (2.3)
Joint torques 0.062 (0.021) 7.9 (2.8) 0.060 (0.024) 7.5 (2.9) 0.055 (0.021) 6.7 (2.8)
Run NN GRF 0.764 (0.279) 5.8 (2.1) 0.758 (0.298) 5.6 (2.3) 0.895 (0.290) 6.9 (2.1)
GRM 0.062 (0.025) 7.6 (5.2) 0.052 (0.025) 5.9 (4.7) 0.076 (0.029) 8.2 (4.7)
Joint torques 0.087 (0.043) 7.7 (5.4) 0.085 (0.041) 7.4 (5.3) 0.104 (0.045) 8.5 (5.2)
RF GRF 0.763 (0.280) 5.8 (2.1) 0.764 (0.295) 5.7 (2.2) 0.893 (0.290) 6.9 (2.1)
GRM 0.062 (0.025) 7.6 (5.2) 0.052 (0.026) 5.9 (4.7) 0.075 (0.029) 8.2 (4.7)
Joint torques 0.087 (0.043) 7.7 (5.4) 0.085 (0.041) 7.3 (5.3) 0.104 (0.045) 8.5 (5.2)
Ridge GRF 0.761 (0.282) 5.8 (2.1) 0.755 (0.304) 5.6 (2.3) 0.896 (0.290) 7.0 (2.1)
GRM 0.062 (0.025) 7.6 (5.2) 0.052 (0.026) 5.9 (4.7) 0.076 (0.029) 8.3 (4.7)
Joint torques 0.087 (0.043) 7.7 (5.4) 0.085 (0.041) 7.3 (5.3) 0.105 (0.045) 8.5 (5.3)
The table lists the values corresponding to the multistage subclass approach. Each row contains the results for a specific a-regression algorithm
(estimation of the global state description), and each column corresponds to the implementation of the b-regression (estimation of control
coefficients)

average. Both computation times include the initial opti-
mization of motion coefficients a^. In contrast to that, the
comparative data-driven optimization requires computation
times in the order of 1000 s. The values are obtained using
unoptimized python code without parallelization, run on an
Intel(R) processor with 3.50 GHz.
5.2 Public data set
The public data set by Fukuchi et al. includes 44 subjects,
performing level ground and treadmill walking. For the
application of the end-to-end regressions, only processed
dynamics data are used, i.e., joint angles, joint torques and
GRF. The data set encompasses 308 corresponding
sequences. The joint angles are treated as input states and
the joint torques and GRF as output controls. After division
into three-frame windows and polynomial fit, the end-to-
end regressions are applied to the resulting coefficients and
analyzed regarding RMSE and rRMSE of joint torques and
GRF. Due to the larger size of this data set, a fivefold cross-
validation is used. The results are listed in Table 4 and
predicted curves are shown in Fig. 7.

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Neural Computing and Applications

Fig. 3 Predicted joint torque and GRF&M curves using the end-to- displayed as the thick line and the dashed lines represent the mean
end Ridge regression on the recorded walking set. The distribution of prediction ± standard deviation
the ground truth controls is illustrated in gray. The mean prediction is

Fig. 4 Predicted joint torque and GRF&M curves using the subclass is illustrated in gray. The mean prediction is displayed as the thick
method with Ridge a-regression and random forest b-regression on line, and the dashed lines represent the mean prediction ± standard
the recorded walking set. The distribution of the ground truth controls deviation

On this data set, the neural network and the random forest than on the laboratory data set. In contrast to our recorded
achieve the comparable results and slightly outperform the data set, the kinematics and dynamics were averaged over
linear Ridge regression. The overall performance is better several gait cycles, which leads to a reduction in outliers.

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 Neural Computing and Applications

Fig. 5 Predicted joint torque and GRF&M curves using the end-to- displayed as the thick line and the dashed lines represent the mean
end ridge regression on the recorded running set. The distribution of prediction ± standard deviation
the ground truth controls is illustrated in gray. The mean prediction is

Fig. 6 Predicted joint torque and GRF&M curves using the subclass illustrated in gray. The mean prediction is displayed as the thick line,
method with ridge a-regression and random forest b-regression on the and the dashed lines represent the mean prediction ± standard
recorded running set. The distribution of the ground truth controls is deviation

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Neural Computing and Applications

Table 4 RMSEs and rRMSEs of

RMSEF (N/kg) rRMSEF (%) RMSEs (Nm/kg) rRMSEs (%)
the predicted joint torques and
GRFs for the public data set by NN 0.388 (0.100) 5.011 (1.197) 0.093 (0.021) 5.832 (1.271)
Fukuchi et al. [9]
RF 0.353 (0.132) 4.583 (1.484) 0.082 (0.022) 5.203 (1.329)
Ridge 0.698 (0.156) 7.558 (1.523) 0.108 (0.022) 6.779 (1.323)

2 0.8 1

0.6
ankle moment [Nm/kg]

1.5 0.5

knee moment [Nm/kg]

hip moment [Nm/kg]

0.4

1 0
0.2

0
0.5 -0.5

-0.2
0 -1
-0.4

-0.5 -0.6 -1.5

0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
% gait cycle % gait cycle % gait cycle

12 3 1

10 2 0.8
vertical GRF [N/kg]

anterior GRF [N/kg]

lateral GRF [N/kg]

8 0.6
1
6 0.4
0
4 0.2
-1
2 0

0 -2 -0.2

-2 -3 -0.4
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
% gait cycle % gait cycle % gait cycle

Fig. 7 Predicted joint torque and GRF curves using the end-to-end displayed as the thick line and the dashed lines represent the mean
neural network regression on the public data set. The distribution of prediction ± standard deviation
the ground truth controls is illustrated in gray. The mean prediction is

5.3 Application to reconstructed motions corresponding image frames. The abnormality of the gait
pattern is analyzed by means of the distribution of mean
In this section, the control parameter regression is tested on squared torques among the limb joints. The squared torques
reconstructed 3D motion states from 2D joint positions and are averaged over the time span of one gait period and
IMU data. In a first experiment, 19 walking sequences of depicted on the right-hand side of Fig. 9. The results of the
different subjects taken from the CMU data base are con- considered sequence are compared to the torque distribu-
sidered. The 3D motion states were reconstructed with the tions estimated for our laboratory set. For better compar-
method of [38] based on 2D joint positions. The mean ison, the values are normalized to the mean corresponding
regression results are depicted in Fig. 8. The figure compares ground truth. The squared torques related to the right leg of
the end-to-end regression results to the subclass results. It the asymmetric gait exhibit a clear deviation from all other
can be seen that the multistage subclass approach yields contrasted results. In particular, the ankle torque is signif-
more valid curves. The absolute values of the predicted icantly decreased and thus can be classified as abnormal.
controls of the end-to-end regression are too low, and the
transitions between gait phases are no longer well-defined.
In a second experiment, the proposed method is tested as 6 Discussion
a detector for abnormal gait patterns. The considered
sequence is a IMU-based 3D reconstruction result of [21]. The comparison between end-to-end regressions and mul-
The recorded movement displays a strong asymmetry: tistage subclass approaches shows that the inference of
Most of the loads are taken by the left limb, while the right controls is supported by a prior classification into gait
limb is kept rather stiff. The left-hand side of Fig. 9 shows phases and a description with contact features. This result
frames of the animated regression results together with the can be drawn from the quantitative evaluation on the

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Fig. 8 Comparison between end-to-end and subclass regression results on the reconstructed CMU gait motions. The thick black line shows the
subclass results, and the gray curve shows the end-to-end results. The dashed lines represent the mean prediction ± standard deviation

Fig. 9 Regression results of an asymmetric gait sequence using our the inferred GRF and joint torques, respectively. Right: Comparison
subclass approach. The input motion was reconstructed by [21] based of the mean squared sagittal torques of the leg joints. The torques of
on IMU data. Left: Animation results together with the related image the impaired leg are compared to the ground truth and the subclass
frames for visualization. The green arrows and red spheres represent predictions of the laboratory walking sequences

laboratory data set and from the qualitative analysis of
the CMU sequences. With the additional information on
the contact state, all tested regression methods achieve the
satisfying results and outperform the end-to-end regres-
sions, as well as the time-consuming data-driven opti-
mization method. Especially, the random forest b-
regression that operates well on small training sets yields
very low rRMSEs. With larger data sets, the performance
of the neural network as b-regression method will probably
increase.
The end-to-end regressions perform well on the public
data set. Both the random forest and the neural network can
predict the joint torques and GRFs with high accuracy. In
contrast to the experiments on the laboratory set, the full

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Neural Computing and Applications
available motion information was used and the kinematics
and dynamics were averaged over several gait periods for
each subject prior to regression.
The apparent drop in performance of the end-to-end
regression tested on the CMU data set is due to the inability
to bridge the domain gap between the training and the test
set. The test set differs from the training set in terms of
increased noise due to prior 3D reconstruction and in terms
of average skeletal posture. The latter is an inherent dif-
ference found in the 3D poses of both data sets and is
probably caused by preprocessing steps, such as marker
placement and inverse kinematics. The multistage subclass
approach can deal with these challenges by dividing the
problem into sub-tasks and by relying on meaningful fea-
tures, such as the absolute velocity of the feet.
The abnormal gait detection results demonstrate how
learning-based inverse dynamics could be utilized to achieve
gait analysis in the wild. The deviation of the torque distri-
bution could be used to give a first indication of the evoking
impairment. The conducted analysis is only based on the
measurement of six IMUs by [21]. Therefore, it could offer a
fast and practical procedure to aid in diagnostics.
7 Conclusions
Learning-based methods for the inverse dynamics problem
of human locomotion were proposed and investigated in
this work. For this purpose, a data set consisting of 3D
body surface scans, 3D motions, ground reaction forces and
center of pressure curves was recorded. The interior joint
torques were estimated by means of predictive dynamics
optimization to generate a complete data set for the training
of inverse dynamics predictors.
Multiple learning-based algorithms were proposed and
compared regarding the prediction of GRF&M and joint
torques. The main focus lays on the comparison of end-to-
end regression methods to multistage subclass approaches.
The evaluation included a comparison of different algo-
rithms (neural networks, random forests and Ridge
regression) for the individual tasks. The multistage sub-
class approach outperformed the other methods imple-
mented with a support vector classifier to identify the
present contact state and a final random forest regression of
control parameters (cf. Table 3).
This result leads us to the conclusion that the sudden
change in motion and active forces at a gait phase transi-
tion calls for a regression method that can incorporate this
discontinuous behavior. In particular, the additional infor-
mation of the ground contact state is beneficial for an
accurate estimation of GRF&M and joint torques.
The learning-based multistage subclass methods achieve
lower error values than a comparative data-driven
optimization method [20]. The computation times could be
reduced from the order of 1000 s to 17.9 s compared to
[20]. Note that the value of 17.9 s includes the initial
optimization of motion parameters a^.
To explore the feasibility of the video-based gait analysis,
experiments on reconstructed gait sequences from the CMU
data base [4] were conducted. The results qualitatively show
that a transfer to the noisy reconstruction results is possible
to some degree and that the classification into gait phases
and the inclusion of contact features are beneficial for this
purpose, although the performance decreases due to struc-
tural differences in both data sets. For a quantitative analysis
of this objective, a large data set with videos, 3D motions
and contact forces is needed and remains a goal for future
research. The experiment indicates a general limitation of
the proposed methods: With an increase domain gap, the
learning-based algorithms will fail to predict the controls.
This is an inherent limitation of supervised learning.
In a final experiment, the ability of the multistage sub-
class control regression to detect asymmetry in a gait pattern
is tested. The test sequence was reconstructed from inertial
data of only six sensors by [21]. The resulting distribution of
squared joint torques showed a clear deviation from all other
processed motions, demonstrating the applicability of the
learning-based inverse dynamics method to detect abnormal
gait patterns in a fast and practical way.
In summary, the results of this study support the use and
investigation of learning-based approaches for the inverse
dynamics task. In our opinion, properties like the fast
computation, the independence from force plate measure-
ments and the robustness concerning incomplete kinemat-
ics (without global information) facilitate goals like video-
or sensor-based gait analysis and rehabilitation monitoring
with mobile devices. With a suitable 3D reconstruction
method like [38, 39, 44, 46], our framework could be
exploited to achieve gait analysis in the wild, i.e., obtain
the acting forces and moments from smartphone videos or
comparable sensor data.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors of this paper have no financial or
personal relationships with other people or organizations that could
inappropriately influence this work.
Appendix 1: Implementation details
concerning [20]
We compare the performance of our learning-based inverse
dynamics methods to a data-driven maximum a posteriori
approach by [20]. For this purpose, the referenced method
123

is implemented with a few modifications to allow a fair
comparison between the two methods. These modifications
were made to achieve a better operation using our specific
data and physical model.
To find z(t) at each frame, the following weighted sum
of energy terms is minimized:
EðzðtÞÞ ¼ k1 Ephysical þ k2 Eprior þ k3 Edata þ k4 Esmooth ;
ð18Þ
with the weights ðk1 ; k2 ; k3 ; k4 Þ ¼ ð2; 2; 100; 1Þ. In consis-
tence with our physical model, the friction term Efriction is
left out, assuming a negligible effect for the considered
movements. The state and control parameters are
zðtÞ ¼ ðqðtÞ; qðtÞ;
_ Fc ðtÞ; sðtÞÞ; ð19Þ
where Fc consists of the GRF and the GRM. In contrast to
[20], the center of pressure and the torsional torque are
replaced by the resulting GRM.
Similar to [20], principle component analysis is used to
linearize the local parameter space at each frame. The local
environment is built of the 200 next neighbors of zðtÞ. We
only optimize the scores s of the first n principle compo-
nents stacked in the matrix K. These n components con-
stitute 95 % of the overall variability of the local data. This
way the number of optimization variables is drastically
reduced. The optimization problem becomes
minfEðl þ KsÞÞg; ð20Þ
s
with the mean l of the neighbouring parameter vectors.
As indicated before, the state vector z is adapted to fit
the applied physical model, which has an immediate effect
on the physical term Ephys . This term describes the devia-
tion of the kinematic state ðqðtÞ; qðtÞ;
_ q€ðtÞÞ given by zðtÞ
from the kinematics arising from the acting forces and
torques via the EOM. Based on Eq. (4), the energy term is
defined as
Ephysical ¼ kM€ _ Fc ; sÞk2 :
q  F ðq; q; ð21Þ
The changed physical model further necessitates a slight
modification of the smoothness term:
Esmooth ¼ kFc ðt  1Þ  2Fc ðtÞ þ Fc ðt þ 1Þk2 : ð22Þ
The remaining energy terms Eprior and Edata can be
employed without adaptation.
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