Small, tracked mobile robots designed for general urban mobility have been developed for the purpose of reconnaissance and/or search and rescue missions in buildings and cities. Autonomous stair climbing is a significant capability required for many of these missions. In this paper we present the design and implementation of a new set of estimation and control algorithms that increase the speed...

INTRODUCTION Arthrodesis of the ankle is an established operation. The lack of normal ankle movement after ankle arthrodesis reduced the ability of the patients to walk smoothly on the arthrodesis foot. It would have a more profound effect in negotiating stairs, because large ranges of dorsiflexion and plantarflexion are required to accomplish this activity. Although gait characteristics have b...

OBJECTIVES To assess the influence of occupational exposures on risk of site-specific radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee, hand, foot, and cervical spine. METHODS Using a cross-sectional design, data collected from men and women aged 40 years and older participating in the Clearwater Osteoarthritis Study were analyzed (n = 3436). Subjects' occupational exposures were queried using th...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Improved walking is a common goal after stroke. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the torque generated by the muscles of both lower extremities and 2 locomotor tasks: gait on level surfaces and stair climbing in people who had strokes. SUBJECTS Twenty community-dwelling individuals (mean age=61.2 years, SD=8.4, range=52-82) who had stroke...

OBJECTIVE This study was a long-term survey of a stair climbing campaign that made use of point-of-choice prompts aimed at achieving exemplary behavior in citizens. METHODS The campaign began in September 2007 at the Kochi Prefectural Office. We monitored office workers who climbed the stairs or used the elevator in the prefectural office building, excluding weekends, from August 2007 through...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to assess the role of a symptom-limited stair climbing test in predicting postoperative cardiopulmonary complications in elderly candidates for lung resection. METHODS A consecutive series of 109 patients more than 70 years of age who underwent pulmonary lobectomy for lung carcinoma from January 2000 through May 2003 formed the prospective database o...

Stair climbing is one of the most attractive performance of mobile robot for both legged and wheeled. (e.g. Stoeter et al., 2002; Murphy, 2000; Yim et al., 2000; Krishna et al., 1997; Granosik et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2005; Arai et al., 2006; Tanaka et al., 2006; Miyanaka et al., 2007; Tsukagoshi et al.,2005) Authors have been developing various kinds of stair climbers, considering how to make...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to quantify the probability of recovery of mobility in admission nonwalking stroke survivors. METHODS We evaluated 437 of 500 consecutive patients admitted for sequelae of first ischemic stroke within the first month. We performed several logistic regressions using mobility status at discharge (independence in stair climbing; walking outside and inside, with...

Following total knee arthroplasty (TKA), physical therapists must evaluate patient readiness to safely begin stair-climbing. Physical therapists might find self-reported chair-rise ability useful in determining stair-climbing readiness of patients. We grouped 31 subjects who were at approximately 3.6 weeks post-TKA by chair-rise ability (group 1 = "Because of my knee, I can only rise from a cha...

[Purpose] This study investigated the effect of stepper exercise with visual feedback on strength, walking, and stair climbing in stroke patients. [Subjects] Twenty-six stroke patients were divided randomly into the stepper exercise with visual feedback group (n = 13) or the stepper exercise group (n = 13). [Methods] Subjects in the experimental group received feedback through the mirror during...