Analysis and study of human joint torque and motion energy during walking on various grounds

Abstract

It is interesting to calculate the joint torque and motion energy during human walking. In this paper, a two-link manipulator approach to human walking dynamics for estimating joint torque and motion energy is proposed. The accelerometers installed on human limbs measure the angle of time-sequent trajectories used to estimate joint torque and motion energy based on the approach dynamic equations. However, the joint torque and motion energy estimated by dynamic equations are very sensitive to their parameters such as link length and weight. It is hard to have accurate limb length and weight. The study can not measure absolute scale of the torque and energy, but only focuses on the comparison of walking on six different grounds, and the difference between left and right legs. Experiments of taking a load during walking are also included. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.