Prospective control of walking and running requires perceiving sloping surfaces that can and cannot support these activities. Two experiments on slant perception were conducted, motivated by the notion of geographical slant rather than optical slant, and by an affordance based description of surface layout. In Experiment 1, participants standing on a horizontal surface (the ground) adjusted the...

Smooth slopes can be displayed on treadmills through tilt mechanisms , but these mechanisms are typically too slow to present sudden slope changes. The Sarcos Treadport utilizes a mechanical tether that can apply horizontal forces to the user to simulate gravity forces. Psychophys-ical results are presented to show that slope display via tether forces is a reasonable facsimile for treadmill slo...

the focus of studies in the field of passive walking has often been on straight walking, while less attention has been paid to the field of turning motions. in this paper, the passive motions of a finite width rimless wheel as the simplest 3d model of passive biped walkers was investigated with a focus on turning motions. for this purpose, the hybrid model of the system consisting of continuous...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the activation of the paraspinalis muscles (multifidus and erector spinae) at different walking velocities and slope with surface electromyography. METHODS This study was a prospective experimental study involving ten healthy male participants. Surface electrodes were placed over the multifidus and erector spinae muscles at the L5 and L3 level. After the electrode was pl...

Following peripheral nerve injury, moderate daily exercise conducted on a level treadmill results in enhanced axon regeneration and modest improvements in functional recovery. If the exercise is conducted on an upwardly inclined treadmill, even more motor axons regenerate successfully and reinnervate muscle targets. Whether this increased motor axon regeneration also results in greater improvem...

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of arch support insoles on uphill and downhill walking of persons with flatfoot. Sixteen healthy college students with flatfoot were recruited in this study. Their heart rate, peak oxygen uptake (VO2), and median frequency (MDF) of surface electromyogram were recorded and analyzed. Nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for ...

This work explores regulation of forward speed, step length, and slope walking for the passive-dynamic class of bipedal robots. Previously, an energy-shaping control for regulating forward speed has appeared in the literature; here we show that control to be a special case of a more general time-scaling control that allows for speed transitions in arbitrary time. As prior work has focused on po...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of load carrying methods, stair slopes and walking speeds on heart rate and walking postures. Nine participants climbed up and down stairs with various stair slopes (24°, 30° and 36°), walking speeds (72, 96, and 132 steps per minute), and using different load carrying methods (empty loads, backpack, and hand-held). The effects of these facto...

We demonstrate that an irreducibly simple, uncontrolled, two-dimensional, two-link model, vaguely resembling human legs, can walk down a shallow slope, powered only by gravity. This model is the simplest special case of the passive-dynamic models pioneered by McGeer (1990a). It has two rigid massless legs hinged at the hip, a point-mass at the hip, and infinitesimal point-masses at the feet. Th...