A new shoulder model with a biologically inspired glenohumeral joint.

•A large-scale multibody model of the upper limb with 6 degrees of freedom for the glenohumeral joint is presented.•The glenohumeral joint is modelled as a spherical joint with clearance.•A novel inverse dynamics procedure is presented to estimate not only the muscle and joint reaction forces of the upper limb, but also the glenohumeral joint translations.•For an abduction motion in the frontal plane, the model predicts an initial upward and posterior movement of the humeral head, followed by an inferior and anterior movement.•The glenohumeral joint translations predicted are in good agreement with in-vivo, in-vitro, and computational measurements reported in the literature.