Home // International Journal On Advances in Life Sciences, volume 12, numbers 3 and 4, 2020 // View article

Spring Assist Unit for Individuals with Walking Disabilities

Authors:
Haruki Baba
Akimasa Suzuki
Yoshitoshi Murata
Tomoki Yamato
Yukihide Nishimura

Keywords: walking disability; walking assist unit; spring; walking posture; muscle power.

Abstract:
Latter-stage elderly people, as well as people with diseases such as hemiplegia, often have a walking disability, which increases their risk of falling and suffering injuries. The magnitude of the angular velocity during both the heel rise phase of walking (kicking the floor) and swing phase (swinging the toe forward) is lower for disabled people compared to healthy individuals, owing to their lower muscle power. We have developed a spring assist unit that fits in the heel of a shoe and helps disabled people raise their heel when beginning to walk. Experimental results demonstrate that it substantially assists in walking and normalizing gait. We also report a correlation between body weight and optimal spring stiffness, and that the spring assist unit does not affect the individual’s walking posture.

Pages: 102 to 113

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2020. Used with permission.

Publication date: December 30, 2020

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2660