Human walking animation based on foot reaction force in the three-dimensional virtual world

This paper introduces a method that can generate continuous human walking motion automatically on an arbitrary path in a three-dimensional (3D) modelled scene. The method is based on a physical approach that solves the boundary value problem. In the motion generation stage, natural-looking walking motion, which includes plane walking, walking upstairs and downstairs and walking on a curved path, is created by applying dynamics and kinematics. The human body is approximated as a simple rigid skeleton model, and dynamic motion is created based on the ground reaction force of the human foot. To adapt to the 3D environment, the 3D walking path is divided into steps which are tagged with the parameters needed for motion generation, and step-by-step motion is connected end-to-end. Additional features include fast calculation and a reduced need for user control. The proposed method can produce interesting human motion and can create realistic computer animation scenes. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.