Muscle spindle modelling and identification

Abstract

Muscles concerned with movement and the maintenance of posture contain large numbers of sensory receptors called muscle spindles which respond to changes in load imposed on the parent muscle. These receptors play an important role in neuromuscular control systems. This article presents a simplified description of muscle spindles, summarizes the methods used to describe the signals which they generate and outlines the modelling and identification procedures used to investigate their behaviour.