BACKGROUND The relative importance and association of factors contributing to physical frailty in elderly persons are unclear. METHODS Physical measures of upper and lower extremity strength, range of motion, balance, coordination, sensation, and gait were evaluated in relation to scores obtained on a 36-point physical performance test (PPT) in 107 elderly subjects. RESULTS Scores on the PP...

Persons with cerebral palsy frequently walk with a crouched, internally rotated gait. Spastic medial hamstrings or adductors are presumed to contribute to excessive hip internal rotation in some patients; however, the capacity of these muscles to produce internal rotation has not been adequately investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine the hip rotation moment arms of the medial ...

OBJECTIVE To find the characteristics of elderly gait, we compared the elderly walking at a moderate speed with the young adult walking at a slow, moderate, and fast speed. METHODS 3D gait analysis was performed on 15 elderly and 15 young adults. Temporo-spatial, kinematic, and kinetic parameters were obtained. Self-selected moderate speed of the elderly walking was compared with self-selecte...

Stair gait is a useful activity for the assessment of knee function. The aim of this study was to determine whether knee joint kinematics and moments are affected by the choice of stair gait cycle (SGC) and the step used to measure ground reaction forces (GRFs). This was investigated through motion analysis of ten non-pathological subjects as they ascended and descended a four-step staircase. T...

objectives: the aim of this study was to extract suitable spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters to determine how total knee replacement (tkr) alters patients’ knee kinematics during gait, using a rapid and simplified quantitative two-dimensional gait analysis procedure. methods: two-dimensional kinematic gait pattern of 10 participants were collected before and after the tkr surgery, using a ...

Abstract   The simple passive dynamic walker can walk down a shallow downhill slope with no external control or energy input. Nevertheless, the period-one gait stability is only possible over a very narrow range of slopes. Since the passive gaits are extremely sensitive to slope angles, it is important to use a control strategy in order to achieve a wide range of stable walking. The computed to...

The focus of this paper is the problem of foot rotation in biped robots during the single support phase. Foot rotation is an indication of postural instability and should be carefully treated in a dynamically stable walk and avoided altogether in a statically stable walk. We introduce the foot rotation indicator (FRI) point which is a point on the foot/ground contact surface where the net groun...

We aim at merging technologies from Information Technology, Roomware, and Robotics in order to design adaptive and intelligent furniture. This paper presents the framework for modular robots, called Roombots, as future building blocks for furniture that moves and self-reconfigures. The reconfiguration is done using dynamic connection and disconnection of modules and rotations of the degrees of ...

The purpose of this research is to generate a stable motion for a hydraulic actuated biped robot. Since the application effect of most dynamic biped robot locomotion theories is not very well and the static walk pattern is hard to realize on human-sized hydraulic actuated biped robot because of the small size of foot compared with body height. In this study, we propose a trajectory planning met...