Mathematics of Human Motion: from Animation towards Simulation (A View form the Outside)

Abstract

Simulation of human motion is the subject of study in a number of disciplines: Biomechanics, Robotics, Computer Animation, Control Theory, Neurophysiology, Medicine, Ergonomics. Since the author has never visited any of these fields, this review is indeed a passer-by's impression. On the other hand, he happens to be a human (who occasionally is moving) and, as everybody else, rates himself an expert in Applied Common Sense. Thus the author hopes that this view from the {\em outside} will be of some interest not only for the strangers like himself, but for those who are {\em inside} as well. Two flaws of the text that follows are inevitable. First, some essential issues that are too familar to the specialists to discuss them may be missing. Second, the author probably failed to provide the uniform "level-of-detail" for this wide range of topics.