• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.7 s.94
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• pp.1864-1873
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• 1993

A biomechanical approach was carried out to analyze foot-floor reaction forces acting on five male subjects performing a walking task. The task analyzed was walking over an obstacle with the right bare foot. The foot-floor reaction data were measured from a force plate, and then processed using a software developed. The source program was coded in the C language for easier on-line data acquisition and graphic displays. High repeatability was found in the reaction data acquired from three trials by each subject. For obstacle height from 0 to 25 cm, the maximum in reaction force reached up to 1.048 BW in the vertical, 0.174 BW in the anterior-posterior, and 0.054 BW in the medio-lateral components, respectively. A quantity was defined by the difference between two vertical reaction values, and this quantity was found to be proportional to the obstacle height. It was also shown that the whole body motion could be predicted the measured foot-floor reaction data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.2101-2112
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• 1994

A two-dimensional biomechanical model was developed in order to calculated the lower extremity kinematics and kinetics during level walking. This model consists of three segments : the thigh, calf, and foot. Each segment was assumed to be a rigid body ; its motion to be planar in the sagittal plane. Five young males were involved in the gait experiment and their anthropometric data were measured for the calculation of segmental masses and moments of inertial. Six markers were used to obtain the kinematic data of the right lower extremity for at least three trials of walking at 1.0m/s, and simultaneously a Kistler force plate was used to obtain the foot-floor reaction data. Based on the experimental data acquired for the stance phase of the right foot, calculated vertical joint forces reached up to 0.91, 1.05, and 1.11 BW(body weight) at the hip, the knee, the ankle joints, respectively. The flexion-extension moments reached up to 69.7, 52.3, and 98.8 Nm in magnitude at the corresponding three joints. It was found that the calculated joint loadings of a subject were statistically the same for all his three trials, but not the same for all five subjects involved in the gait study.