Patent Application Titled 'Systems And Devices For Assistive Mobility' Published Online (USPTO 20210267837)

摘要

2021 SEP 17 (NewsRx) - By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Disease Prevention Daily - According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Dl LIDDO, Laura (Arezzo, IT); PANIZZOLO, Fausto Antonio (Padova, IT); ZILIO, Giovanni (Padova, IT), filed on April 9, 2019, was made available online on September 2, 2021. No assignee for this patent application has been made. Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Walking is the most common form of human locomotion. Although humans adapt their gait to different terrains and in response to different tasks by varying the selected speed, years of evolution have finely tuned the musculoskeletal system to be optimized for energy expenditure. In particular, in the course of walking, we decide to adopt a walking speed which minimizes the metabolic cost spent for a fixed distance. "Despite evolution's progress, humans experience reduced walking capacity for a number of reasons (e.g., aging and muscle atrophy, fatigue from prolonged exertion, etc.). For example, the elderly undergo a reduction of muscle mass (sarcopenia) which in turn leads to a decrease in the preferred walking speed. Furthermore, since this reduction of muscle mass affects the distal muscle groups more than the proximal, there is a change in the overall mechanics of walking. Therefore, while in a young adult the ankle joint is the main source of mechanical work to power walking, the mass reduction of the muscles spanning this joint lead to the hip joint being the main contributor to mechanical work in the elderly.