Steady state human locomotion at level ground needs compensatory energy input against impulsive energy loss during heel strike. Ground push-off by the stance leg right before the onset of double support phase appeared to be four times energy efficient than the an active hip torque generation during the swing phase [1]. However, if there is biomechanical constraint applied to the maximum allowab...

BACKGROUND Methods of measuring lower extremity function is limited for those with partial weight bearing (PWB) status in early phases of a lower extremity rehabilitation program. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to measure intra-rater reliability of two lower extremity PWB performance measures using an incline exercise apparatus and to evaluate the concurrent validity and responsiven...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ankle joint mobilization with movement on knee strength, ankle range of motion, and gait velocity, compared with weight-bearing exercise in stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty subjects with chronic stroke were divided into three groups: MWM (n = 12), WBE (n = 8), and control (n = 10). All groups attended physical t...

The feet/ground interaction is one of the major problem in the context of dynamic simulation for walking devices. We focus here about the phenomenon of contact. This paper describes a general model for dynamic simulation of contacts between a walking robot and ground. This model considers a force distribution and uses an analytical form for each force depending only on the known state of the ro...

The fault tolerant gait of legged robots in static walking is a gait which maintains its stability against a fault event preventing a leg from having the support state. In this paper, a fault tolerant quadruped gait is proposed for a hexapod traversing uneven terrain with forbidden regions, which do not offer viable footholds but can be stepped over. By comparing performance of straight-line mo...

BACKGROUND Environments conducive to walking may help people avoid sedentary lifestyles and associated diseases. Recent studies developed walkability models combining several built environment characteristics to optimally predict walking. Developing and testing such models with the same data could lead to overestimating one's ability to predict walking in an independent sample of the population...