Dick H. van Campen - Böcker

During the last decades, applications of dynamical analysis in advanced, often nonlinear, engineering systems have been evolved in a revolutionary way. In this context one can think of applications in aerospace engineering like satellites, in naval engineering like ship motion, in mechanical engineering like rotating machinery, vehicle systems, robots and biomechanics, and in civil engineering like earthquake dynamics and offshore technology. One could continue with this list for a long time. The application of advanced dynamics in the above fields has been possible due to the use of sophisticated computational techniques employing powerful concepts of nonlinear dynamics. These concepts have been and are being developed in mathematics, mechanics and physics. It should be remarked that careful experimental studies are vitally needed to establish the real existence and observability of the predicted dynamical phenomena. The interaction between nonlinear dynamics and nonlinear control in advanced engineering systems is becoming of increasing importance because of several reasons. Firstly, control strategies in nonlinear systems are used to obtain desired dynamic behaviour and improved reliability during operation, Applications include power plant rotating machinery, vehicle systems, robotics, etc. Terms like motion control, optimal control and adaptive control are used in this field of interest. Since mechanical and electronic components are often necessary to realize the desired action in practice, the engineers use the term mechatronics to indicate this field. If the desired dynamic behaviour is achieved by changing design variables (mostly called system parameters), one can think of fields like control of chaos.

Biomechanics as a scientific activity is not new. Already involved (or so it is said) in its practice were Aristotle (384-327 BC) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Recently, however, it has become fashionable as a separate field, as witnessed by the existence of a Journal of Biomechanics (1968), an Interna­ tional (1973), a European (1976) and an American (1977) Society of Biomechanics, and an amount of (usually recently erected) Biomechanics Laboratories at Uni­ versities or other institutions throughout the world. If one or~anises a Con­ ference on Biomechanics, a relatively large number of scientists leave their cubicles or workshops to visit the place of worship. It becomes quickly evident, however, that such a forum for scientific communication is far from being homo­ geneous. All are not of the same believe, and the variety in professional inte­ rests almost parallels the number of attendants. "Biomechanics, the science of applying methods and principles of Mechanics to biological tissues and medical problems" is a definition which, in one form or another, has found wide acceptance among biomecanicians. Nevertheless, Bio­ mechanics is interwoven and thus often confused with other scientific endeavors. It is colored differently by its many fields of application (e. g. Orthopaedic and Cardio-Vascular Surgery, Dentistry, Rehabilitation, Physical Medicine, Injury Prevention, Sports and others), and the backgrounds of its disciplina­ ries. It partly overlaps sciences as Biomaterials, Medical Physics and Biophy­ sics, Physiology, and Functional Anatomy.