Computational evaluation of load carriage effects on gait balance stability

Abstract

Evaluating the effects of load carriage on gait balance stability is important in various applications. However, their quantification has not been rigorously addressed in the current literature, partially due to the lack of relevant computational indices. The novel Dynamic Gait Measure (DGM) characterizes gait balance stability by quantifying the relative effects of inertia in terms of zero-moment point, ground projection of center of mass, and time-varying foot support region. In this study, the DGM is formulated in terms of the gait parameters that explicitly reflect the gait strategy of a given walking pattern and is used for computational evaluation of the distinct balance stability of loaded walking. The observed gait adaptations caused by load carriage (decreased single support duration, inertia effects, and step length) result in decreased DGM values (p < 0.0001), which indicate that loaded walking motions are more statically stable compared with the unloaded normal walking. Comparison of the DGM with other common gait stability indices (the maximum Floquet multiplier and the margin of stability) validates the unique characterization capability of the DGM, which is consistently informative of the presence of the added load.

Keywords:

• Balance stability
• Dynamic Gait Measure
• dynamic walking
• gait stability
• load carriage

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Keonyoung Oh at KAIST for his help in data collection. A preliminary version of a portion of this material was presented at the 2015 ASME IDETC/CIE 11th International Conference on Multibody Systems, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Control (Boston, MA, USA).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.