• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters and muscle activity of the lower extremities between forward walking on sand (FWS) and backward walking on sand (BWS) in normal adults. Methods: This study was conducted on 13 healthy adults. Subjects performed FWS and BWS and the spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters of stride time, stride length, velocity, cadence, step length, stance, swing, double support, and hip range of motion (ROM), knee ROM were measured by a wearable inertial measurement unit system. In addition, the muscle activity of the rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), tibialis anterior (TA), and gastrocnemius (GA) was measured. Results: The stride length, stride velocity, cadence, and step length in the BWS were significantly lower than FWS (p<0.05), and stride time was significantly greater (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the ratio of stance, swing, and double support between the two (p>0.05). The kinematic gait parameters, including hip and knee joint range of motion in BWS, were significantly lower than FWS (p<0.05). The muscle activity of the RF in BWS was significantly higher than FWS (p<0.05), but the muscle activity of the BF, TA, GA did not show any significant differences between the two movements (p>0.05). Conclusion: A strategy to increase stability by changing the gait parameters is used in BWS, and this study confirmed that BWS was a safe and effective movement to increase RF muscle activity without straining the joints. Therefore, BWS can be recommended for effective activation of the RF.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.267-268
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• 2016

This study aimed to examine the therapeutic effects of backward walking. The subjects were randomly assigned to an experimental group of 16 subjects and a control group of 17 subjects. All subjects walked barefoot for twenty minutes on the treadmill (HM50EX, Daeho, Korea) for five times per week for total four weeks. The average gait velocities of subjects were 3 km/h on a slope of 10%. The experimental group walked back and the control group walked forward. The experimental group showed significant increments in variable of medial-lateral, anterior-posterior, step length, velocity compared to the pre-intervention results. In addition, the control group showed significant increments in the anterior-posterior, velocity compared to the pre-intervention results. Significant differences in the post-training gains in variable of anterior-posterior, step length, velocity were observed between the experimental group and the control group. There were positive effects of backward walking on their gait and balance ability after intervention.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.943-951
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• 2003

A strategy for fault-tolerant gaits of autonomous legged robots is proposed. A legged robot is considered to be fault tolerant with respect to a given failure if it is guaranteed to be capable of walking maintaining its static stability after the occurrence of the failure. The failure concerned in this paper is a locked joint failure for which a joint in a leg cannot move and is locked in place. If a failed joint is locked, the workspace of the resulting leg is constrained, but legged robots have fault tolerance capability to continue static walking. An algorithm for generating fault-tolerant gaits is described and, especially, periodic gaits are presented for forward walking of a hexapod robot with a locked joint failure. The leg sequence and the formula of the stride length are analytically driven based on gait study and robot kinematics. The transition procedure from a normal gait to the proposed fault-tolerant gait is shown to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed scheme.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.602-607
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• 2017

This study was undertaken to compare the gait characteristics between the Korean elderly and young adults, we measured the plantar pressure and contact time of gait with barefoot along a walkway at their preferred walking speed. The results indicate that older people exhibited significantly less plantar pressure than young adult in all 3 regions (FF, MF and RF) and significantly less time % on the initial contact phase (ICP), forefoot push-off phase (FFPOP) and significantly more % forefoot contact phase (FFCP) and foot flat phase (FFP). The converted plantar pressure value to percentage, it showed more pressure in forefoot (FF) in the elderly person than the young adults. It could be explained that the forward shifting in plantar pressure are associated with a more flexed posture of elderly such as actual stabilizing fearrelated adaptations. Longer total foot contact time in the elderly means that the old people show the decreased gait velocity. In other words, lower velocity was found to be associated with pre-existing fear of falling. With longer contact time and slower stepping movement, the elderly become more unstable. With these findings, it could be confirmed that there were significant changes in foot characteristics which contribute to alter the plantar pressure and contact time during gait with advancing age. Further research is required to establish possible links to risk of falling and development of footwear in the elderly adults.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2007

It is essential for gait analysis to know the distance information. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of start and finish distance on the gait variable during walking. Six adolescent participated in this study. Start condition was given by six conditions.: walking forward from (1) one step, (2) three steps, (3) five steps, (4) ten steps, (5) one step after standing walk, and (6) three steps after standing walk, before contacting the force plate. Stop condition was given by four conditions. : stop after (1) one step, (2) two steps, (3) three steps, and (4) ten steps, passing force plate. Repeated measured one-way ANOVA was utilized for data analysis, and the significant level was set at .05. The largest change from the difference of gait velocity exists between the variables of ground reaction force. There were no significant differences in spatio-temporal and posture(angle) variables, as well as ground reaction force variables with walking over the three steps. There were significant differences in gait velocity, knee angle at heel contact, vertical impulse and ankle angle at toe off in short distance.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.120-126
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of backward treadmill gait training between underwater and ground environments on strength, proprioception, and walking ability in persons with stroke. Design: Randomized control trial. Methods: Twenty eight subjects participated in the study in which they were randomly assigned to either the underwater backward treadmill training (UBTT) group (n=13) or the BTT group (n=15). In both groups, forward gait training was performed for 20 minutes on the ground treadmill. The UBTT group performed backward gait on an underwater treadmill for 20 minutes while the BTT group performed backward gait on a ground treadmill for 20 minutes. The gait training in each group was performed twice a week for a total of six weeks. Muscle strength, proprioception, and gait ability was assessed using a digital power meter, joint angle recurrence method using the smartphone protractor application, the Figure-of-Eight walk test (F8W) and the functional gait assessment (FGA) respectively. Results: Both groups showed significant improvement in strength, F8W and FGA scores after training (p<0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Both groups showed significant improvement in proprioception after training (p<0.05). In the comparison between the two groups, there was a greater significant change in the UBTT group for joint proprioception (p<0.05). Conclusions: In this study, it was found that both backward treadmill gait training programs were effective on strength, proprioception, and gait ability, and that underwater training was particularly effective on proprioception compared to ground training.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.245-250
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• 2019

Milli-scale crawling robots have been widely studied due to their maneuverability in confined spaces. For successful crawling, the crawling robots basically required to fulfill alternating gait with elliptical foot trajectory. The alternating gait with elliptical foot trajectory normally generates both forward and upward motion. The upward motion makes the aerial phase and during the aerial phase, the forward motion enables the crawling robots to proceed. This simultaneous forward and upward motion finally results in fast crawling speed. In this paper, we propose a novel alternating mechanism to make a crab-inspired eight-legged crawling robot. The key design strategy is an alternating mechanism based on double four-bar linkages. Crab-like robots normally employs gear-chain drive to make the opposite phase between neighboring legs. To use the gear-chain drive to this milli-scale robot system, however, is not easy because of heavy weight and mechanism complexity. To solve the issue, the double-four bar linkages has been invented to generate the oaring motion for transmitting the equal motion in the opposite phase. Thanks to the proposed mechanism, the robot crawls just like the real crab with the crawling speed of 0.57 m/s.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.111-120
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• 2022

Objective: This study investigated the effect of pelvic tiltng according to the paralytic side on gait in stroke patients during a 10 m functional movement timed up and go (TUG) test. Method: In this study, gait parameters were measured using a gait analyzer for 20 stroke patients and their gait was analyzed during a 10 m TUG test. For statistical analysis, an independent sample t-test were performed for age, height, and weight among general characteristics of subjects and homogeneity was tested by performing a chi-square test for gender, paralysis side, period of onset, and K-MMSE score. In order to understand the relationship between each variable, Pearson correlation analysis was performed on the variables. Results: First, the right-hand paralyzed group showed correlations in cadence and gait velocity in the up and down tilt of the pelvis, and the left-hand paralyzed group showed correlations in cadence and step length in the anterior and posterior tilt of the pelvis. Second, the tilt of the pelvis was correlated with the Sit to stand, walk forward, walk backwards, turn around at the end point, sit on a chair and the total TUG time in the right hemiplegic group compared to the left hemiplegic group. Conclusion: In this study, a significant correlation was confirmed as a result of gait analysis of right-handed stroke patients divided into a right paraplegic group and a left paraplegic group. In the future, it is suggested that treatment for improving gait of stroke patients should be treated differently for the right and left paralyzed side.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate spatial and temporal features of motor control in an individual with hemiparesis during the curvilinear gait (CG) and proposed an exercise guideline. Research design, data and methodology: An individual aged 63 with hemiparesis by stroke disease was participated in the study. Autoencoder (AE) was used to extract four motor modules from eight muscle activities of the paretic leg during CG. After extraction, each module of four modules was operationally defined by numbering from M1 to M4 according to spatial and temporal features and compared with results reported in a previous study. Results: As a result, an individual with hemiparesis had motor module problems related to difficulty of weight acceptance (module 1), compensation for the weakness of ankle plantar flexor (module 2), a spastic synergistic pattern (module 3) and difficulty with transition from the swing to stance phase (module 4) in terms of spatial features. Also, a delayed activation timing of temporal motor module (module 2) related to the forward propulsion during CG was observed. Conclusions: Gait rehabilitation for the stroke will need to consider clinical significances in respect of the deterioration of motor module and provide the tailored approaches for each gait phase.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 2020

This study was conducted to investigate the immediate effects of abdominal pressure blet on limited of stability and gait parameter in patients after stroke. Thirty stroke patients were recruited to measured pre and post wearing the abdominal pressure belt. The assessment measured limited of stability and spatiotemporal gait parameter. This study result were significantly increase in paretic side area, non-paretic side area, forward side area, backward side area (p<.05) and cadence, gait velocity, stride length (p<.05). This study found that abdominal pressure belt had an immediate effect on improving balance and gait function in stroke patients. Future studies require studies of efficient abdominal pressure levels and intervention periods to improve the balance and walking function of stroke patient.