yeadon 0.95

Update on 3/24/2012 to reflect many bug changes

Overview

This package calculates the masses, center of mass positions, and inertia tensors that correspond to the human inertia model developed by Yeadon in (Yeadon, 1990). The package allows for the input of both measurements and configuration variables (joint angles), and provides 3D graphical output using the VPython package.

The package was developed on a Linux Ubuntu personal computer, and so this README has that bent to it.

References

M. R. Yeadon, 1990. The Simulation of Aerial Movement-ii. Mathematical Inertia Model of the Human Body. Journal of Biomechanics, 23:67-74.

Directories

• yeadon/ is the root directory of this package
• / contains two template input .txt files
• doc/ contains source documents for building sphinx documentation.
• yeadon/ contains the python source files for the yeadon package

Installing

This package was developed in Python 2.7. It depends on the following widely-used packages:

• Numpy (debian: python-numpy)
• Matplotlib (debian: python-matplotlib)
• vPython optional, used for pretty visualization (debian: python-visual)
• Sphinx optional, needed to create documentation (debian: python-sphinx)
• numpydoc sphinx extension

In Linux systems, you may be able to obtain those four packages by opening a terminal window (CTRL-ALT-T) and typing the following line:

$apt-get install python-numpy python-matplotlib # required
$apt-get install python-sphinx python-visual # optional packages

For other systems (Windows or Mac), visit the websites for the packages, given above for installation instructions.

Once you download the yeadon package and decompress it, you can install in Linux with the commands along the lines of:

$python setup.py install

or simply use a tool like pip

$pip install yeadon

Again, this assumes that you have installed Python 2.7. You can build (create) the yeadon documentation if you have the python sphinx package (see above) by typing, in the same yeadon/ directory:

$cd doc/
$make html

to make HTML documentation in the yeadon/doc/_build/html folder, or:

$cd doc/
$make latex  #(or: make latexpdf)

to generate LaTeX source files in the yeadon/doc/_build/latex.

Usage

In a python script or in the python command prompt (IDLE), import the library with a line like

>>>import yeadon as y

You can begin the command line interface by executing

>>>y.start_ui()

Then you can follow the instructions provided in the command line interface. The other way to interact with the package is by creating a human object with a line (perhaps in your own code) like

>>>H = y.human(<measfilename>, <CFGfilename>)

where <measfilename> and <CFGfilename> are replaced by strings that contain a relative or absolute path to the appropriate input .txt files. For more basics on how to use a human object, you can go into a python command prompt and type

>>>import yeadon as y
>>>help(y.human)

See the HTML or PDF documentation for more information.

Contact

Feel free to contact Chris Dembia ([e-mail]) with any questions or comments.

Post issues to http://github.com/fitze/yeadon/issues.