Analysis of Ground Reaction Forces in Walker Assisted Gait

摘要

The walkers are very popular assistive devices. Nevertheless, the modifications in gait patterns derived by the use of such devices are not clearly described in the literature. Some works performed studies regarding the ground reaction forces (GRF) in walker assisted gait. Modifications on the ground reaction forces were observed but no measurement was taken in order to experimentally validate and quantify the assumptions that justify such modifications - gait speed and gait posture. In this context, one step further is taken in this work by performing a study with two complementary measurement systems in order to obtain kinematic and dynamic parameters during gait experiments with and without walker.