Human Locomotion Analysis

Publisher Summary Mechanics analysis of the gait of normal and disabled subjects enables to characterize normal and pathological gait and to provide specifications for artificial limbs, joints, and bone grafts. In analyzing gait, it is useful to (1) study the basic aspects of the neuromuscular coordination of movement, the contribution of various muscle forces in different phases of the stride and the loss of certain muscle functions for subjects with paralytic disabilities, so as to best design a format of rehabilitation or programmed stimulation in paralytic patients; (2) provide specification of forces, which a skeletal implant or a lower limb prosthesis might be subjected to and must be designed for; and (3) obtain information concerning the instantaneous stresses in the skeleton of the lower limbs, for prescription of the strength of bone grafts and the choice of graft material and its dimension. The kinematics of the various body segments, the reaction forces acting at the joints and inertia forces acting on the segments, the muscle lengths and forces, and the coordination of the instantaneous lower limb muscle forces during walking, need to be determined.