Optimal estimation of complex aerial movements using dynamic optimisation.

When estimating full-body motion from experimental data, inverse kinematics followed by inverse dynamics does not guarantee dynamical consistency of the resulting motion, especially in movements where the trajectory depends heavily on the initial state, such as in free-fall. Our objective was to estimate dynamically consistent joint kinematics and kinetics of complex aerial movements. A 42-degrees-of-freedom model with 95 markers was personalised for five elite trampoline athletes performing various backward and forward twisting somersaults.