Electrical stimulation of the L-3,4 dermatome during treadmill walking is proposed as a gait training modality in incomplete spinal cord injured patients. The dermatome stimulation proved to be efficient in diminishing the extensor tone occurring after loading of the paralyzed limb during the stance phase of walking and resulting in improved flexion of the leg during the swing phase.

It is well established that stance duration changes more than swing duration for a given change in cycle duration. Small variations in cycle duration are also observed at any given speed on a step-by-step basis. To evaluate the step-by-step effect of speed on phase variations, we measured the slopes of the linear regressions between the phases (i.e., stance, swing) and cycle duration during ind...

We examined the energetic cost of loading the trunk or distal portion of the leg in walking and running guinea fowl (Numida meleagris). These different loading regimes were designed to separately influence the energy use by muscles used during the stance and swing phases of the stride. Metabolic rate, estimated from oxygen consumption, was measured while birds locomoted on a motorized treadmill...

Stiff-knee gait is a common walking problem in cerebral palsy characterized by insufficient knee flexion during swing. To identify factors that may limit knee flexion in swing, it is necessary to understand how unimpaired subjects successfully coordinate muscles and passive dynamics (gravity and velocity-related forces) to accelerate the knee into flexion during double support, a critical phase...

In the course of this thesis, neural mechanisms underlying the generation of single leg stepping in the stick insect Carausius morosus were investigated at the premotor level. Local nonspiking interneurons (NSIs) are important premotor elements within the leg muscle control system of insects, which integrate sensory signals from different sources and provide synaptic drive onto motoneurons (MNs...

The role of arm swing in running has been minimally described, and the contributions of arm motion to lower extremity joint kinematics and external force generation are unknown. These contributions may have implications in the design of musculoskeletal models for computer simulations of running, since previous models have usually not included articulating arm segments. 3D stance phase lower ext...

In this paper, a nonlinear model predictive swing-up and stabilizing sliding controller is proposed for an inverted pendulum-cart system. In the swing up phase, the nonlinear model predictive control is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem with energy based objective function. By solving this problem at each sampling instant, a sequence of control inputs that optimize the nonlinear obj...

this paper proposes an approach for the minimum time swing upof a rotary inverted pendulum. our rotary inverted pendulum is supported bya pivot arm. the pivot arm rotates in a horizontal plane by means of a servomotor. the opposite end of the arm is instrumented with a joint whose axisis along the radial direction of the motor. a pendulum is suspended at thejoint. the task is to design a contro...

Loaded walking with typical rigid backpack results in a significant increase the mechanical energy of stance leg and decrease lateral stability. Allowing load to swing, which has been applied shoulder pole, tool widely used Asia for carriage assistance, may attenuate these effects. This paper theoretically analyzes experimentally validates biomechanical energetic effects swinging loads. When 30...

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of knee unlocked medially linked Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthoses (MLKAFO) to the conventional knee locked MLKAFO during walking by means of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES). A 33-year-old male with complete T8 paraplegia participated in this study. The stimulator has two hand switches to change the stimulation pattern. When the switch was turn...