Article

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of our previous
work on roll-over shapes, which are the effective rocker shapes that the lower
limb systems conform to during walking. This article is a summary of
several recently published articles from the Northwestern University Prosthetics
Research Laboratory and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Program on the topic
of roll-over shapes. The roll-over shape is a measurement of centre of pressure
of the ground reaction force in body-based coordinates. This measurement is
interpreted as the effective rocker shape created by lower limb systems during
walking. RESULTS: Our studies have shown that roll-over shapes in able-bodied
subjects do not change appreciably for conditions of level ground walking,
including walking at different speeds, while carrying different amounts of
weight, while wearing shoes of different heel heights, or when wearing shoes with
different rocker radii. In fact, results suggest that able-bodied humans will
actively change their ankle movements to maintain the same roll-over shapes.
CONCLUSIONS: The consistency of the roll-over shapes to level surface walking
conditions has provided insight for design, alignment and evaluation of lower
limb prostheses and orthoses. Changes to ankle-foot and knee-ankle-foot roll-over
shapes for ramp walking conditions have suggested biomimetic (i.e. mimicking
biology) strategies for adaptable ankle-foot prostheses and orthoses.

Langue : ANGLAIS