OBJECTIVE To evaluate if depressive symptoms affect recovery of walking ability and 1-year institutionalization or mortality in older adults who underwent post-hip fracture (HF) surgery rehabilitation. METHODS Depressive symptoms were assessed on admission using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), with scores ≥10/15 indicating moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Multidimensional...

Motivated by the potential use of humanoid robot in real environment, an adaptive feedforward control strategy is developed to stabilize the underactuated bipedal walking on the compliant ground. First, the robot-ground coupling dynamic system is modelled as a rigid kinematical chain coupled with a spring-damper system. Then by observing the human’s gait, we find the walking speed has a direct ...

BACKGROUND Few studies have explored associations of individual, social, and environmental factors with physical activity and walking behavior. METHODS A random-digit-dial questionnaire, which included selected individual, social, and environmental variables, was administered to 2025 adults, age 18 y and older, in two adjacent counties in a southeastern state. Logistic regressions were conduc...

We examined the effects of load carriage position on the energy cost of walking defined as the ratio of the 2-min steady-state oxygen consumption to the speed and economical speed. Fourteen healthy men walked on a treadmill at various speeds without and with load on the lower and upper back, which corresponded to 15% of their body mass. The energy cost of walking significantly decreased during ...

This paper presents the experimental validation of a framework for the systematic design, analysis, and performance enhancement of controllers that induce stable walking in N link underactuated planar biped robots. Controllers designed via this framework act by enforcing virtual constraints— holonomic constraints imposed via feedback—on the robot’s configuration which create an attracting two-d...

Hexapod walking robots have attracted considerable attention for several decades. Many studies have been carried out in research centers, universities and industries. However, only in the recent past have efficient walking machines been conceived, designed and built with performances that can be suitable for practical applications. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art on hexapod...

Purposeful, safe locomotion requires higher-level cortical processes, to meet the real-life demands of walking while performing concurrent cognitive tasks (e.g. recalling a shopping list or attending to a conversation). The assessment of walking and a secondary cognitive task under these 'dual tasking' conditions may represent a more valid outcome measure in multiple sclerosis (MS), by examinin...

results there was a significant difference in the self-esteem (p = 0.003), life satisfaction (p = 0.001), efficiency (p = 0.00), positive mood (p = 0.00), mental health (p = 0.001) and happiness (p = 0.001) among elderly women in the case group before and after a regular six-week walking program. conclusions according to the results, walking increases the happiness and mental health of elderly ...

This paper presents a novel methodology to achieve dynamic walking for underactuated and hybrid dynamical bipedal robots subject to safety-critical position-based constraints. The proposed controller is based on the combination of control Barrier functions and control Lyapunov functions implemented as a state-based online quadratic program to achieve stability under input and state constraints,...