Leg swing in human walking has historically been viewed as a passive motion with little metabolic cost. Recent estimates of leg swing costs are equivocal, covering a range from 10 to 33 per cent of the net cost of walking. There has also been a debate as to whether the periods of double-limb support during the stance phase dominate the cost of walking. Part of this uncertainty is because of our...

This study describes the patterns of activity of hip abductor and adductor muscles and relates their activity to the frontal plane motions of the hindlimbs during unrestrained walking in the cat to provide insight into the function of these muscles in maintaining stability during walking. Electromyographic activity was recorded from hindlimb muscles while cats walked across a walkway. Four vide...

This paper introduces a walking pattern generation method on an inclined terrain in both pitch and roll directions, and uneven terrain. The walking pattern generation method is based on a modifiable walking pattern generator (MWPG) which allows a zero moment point (ZMP) variation in real-time. As a navigational command set, a 3-D command state (CS) is defined, which consists of single and doubl...

Locomotion can be described as a subsequent series of stance and flight phases. In both phases the leg properties can be adapted. Here we consider spring-mass running with a linear adaptation of two leg parameters, leg angle and leg stiffness, during swing phase. The region of stability is characterized by the basin of attraction with sufficient reduction of a given perturbation within one step...

BACKGROUND The CatWalk system, a video based automated gait analysis system developed to evaluate footfall and gait changes in rodents, has been used for studying rodent models of arthritis, mainly the rat model. However, it has not been used to study static and dynamic gait parameters in mice with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). CFA is used extensively to induce arthritis in rodents includin...

The authors have developed a knee-ankle-foot orthosis with a joint unit that controls knee movements using a microcomputer (Intelligent Orthosis). The Intelligent Orthosis was applied to normal subjects and patients, and gait analysis was performed. In the gait cycle, the ratio of the stance phase to the swing phase was less in gait with the knee locked using a knee-ankle-foot orthosis than in ...

Transient disturbances were applied to the lower limbs of infants (3-10 mo of age) while they were supported to stepped on a treadmill. The aim was to determine how stepping infants respond to novel disturbances that would disrupt equilibrium during independent walking. Their responses were also compared with those from lower mammals and adult humans. In the first series of experiments, the mot...

OBJECTIVE Responses to afferent input during locomotion are organized at the spinal level but modulated by supraspinal centers. The study aim was to examine whether supraspinal influences affect the behavior of complex electromyographic (EMG) responses to single limb perturbations during walking. METHODS Subjects with motor-complete (MCSCI), motor-incomplete spinal cord injury (MISCI), and no...

In freely moving cats, walking at speeds of 0.4-1.0 m/s, lesions of the lateral funiculi, performed at the low thoracic level, increased the hindlimb step cycle duration and changed the relationships between the stance and swing phase durations and the step cycle duration. The values of the slopes of linear regression lines relating the swing and the step durations were markedly increased, whil...

The implications of a long-lasting mechanical load on the locomotor activity are poorly understood. The objective of the present studies was to determine an impact of excess body weight on basic spatiotemporal gait measures and to test the hypothesis that leg swing phase may account for a load-related adaptation of the stride characteristics. To this end the basic spatial and temporal stride me...