Hominin Gait Optimization and Analysis Using Evolutionary Dynamic Modeling

要理解塑造人类谱系的进化压力，需要理解多重选择压力、物种解剖学和运动控制以及环境之间复杂的动态相互作用。 使用计算机模拟的进化建模非常适合这种类型的调查，因为它本质上是动态的和定量的。 本项目将利用计算机科学和机器学习的最新进展，开发和验证支持研究黑猩猩、人类和灭绝人类运动控制和进化变化的新方法的技术。 具体而言，该项目将开发计算优化技术，用于开源OpenSim建模和仿真框架。 这些技术，再加上复杂肌肉骨骼系统（如人类）的前向动力学模拟，将用于学习给定优化标准的最佳步态，如最小化代谢成本。 所得到的步态，沿着由模拟产生的力数据，将与从活体受试者的测量中获得的数据进行比较，以确保该方法的有效性。这一试点项目侧重于模拟人类运动，是对黑猩猩，人类和化石人类的控制制度和形态优化进行更全面调查的第一步。 理解人类和黑猩猩步态的控制机制（例如，最小化成本，最大化稳定性或速度）对于重建人类和类人猿的运动进化至关重要。

Understanding the evolutionary pressures that shaped the human lineage requires an understanding of complex, dynamic interactions between multiple selection pressures, species' anatomy and locomotor control, and the environment. Evolutionary modeling using computer simulation is well-suited to this type of investigation because it is inherently dynamic and quantitative. However, it remains an underutilized approach in biological anthropology.This project will harness recent advances in computer science and machine learning to develop and validate the techniques underpinning a new approach for investigating locomotor control and evolutionary change in chimpanzees, humans, and extinct hominins. Specifically, the project will develop computational optimization techniques for use in the open-source OpenSim modeling and simulation framework. These techniques, coupled with forward dynamics simulations of complex musculo-skeletal systems (such as humans), will be used to learn the best gait for a given optimization criterion, such as minimizing metabolic cost. The resulting gait, along with the force data generated by the simulation, will be compared to data obtained from the measurement of live subjects to ensure the validity of the approach.This pilot project focusing on modeling human locomotion is a first step towards a fuller investigation of the control regimes and morphological optimization of chimpanzees, humans, and fossil hominins. Understanding the control regimes (e.g. minimizing cost, maximizing stability, or speed) underlying human and chimpanzee gait is critical for reconstructing locomotor evolution in hominins and hominoids.