• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2021

Objective: The objective of the present study was to analyze the relationship between strength of the lower extremity's joints and their local dynamic stability (LDS) of gait in elderly women. Method: Forty-five elderly women participated in this study. Average age, height, mass, and preference walking speed were 73.5±3.7 years, 153.8±4.8 cm, 56.7±6.4 kg, and 1.2±0.1 m/s, respectively. They were tested torque peak of the knee and ankle joints with a Human Norm and while they were walking on a treadmill at their preference speed for a long while, kinematic data were obtained using six 3-D motion capture cameras. LDS of the lower extremity's joints were calculated in maximum Lyapunov Exponent (LyE). Correlation coefficients between torque of the joints and LyE were obtained using Spearman rank. Level of significance was set at p<.05. Results: Knee flexion torque and its LDS was negatively associated with adduction-abduction and flexion-extension movement (p<.05). In addition, ratio of the knee flexion torque to extension and LDS was negatively related to internal-external rotation. Conclusion: In conclusion, knee flexion strength should preferentially be strengthened to increase LDS of the lower extremity's joints for preventing from small perturbations during walking in elderly women.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.83-98
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest of plantar pressures using the F-Scan system over speeds and plantar regions. 6 healthy female subjects in 20's were recruited for the study. Plantar pressure measurements during locomotor activities can provide information concerning foot function, particularly if the timing and magnitude of the loading profile can be related to the location of specific foot structures such as the metatarsal heads. The Tekscan F-Scan system consists of a flexible, 0.18mm thick sole-shape having 1260 pressure sensors, the sensor insole was trimmed to fit the subjects' right. left shoes - sneakers shoes & dress shoes. It was calibrated by the known weight of the test subject standing on one foot. The Tekscan measurements show the insole pressure distribution as a function of the time. This finding has important implications for the development of plantar pressure test protocols where the function of the forefoot is important. According to the result of analysis it is as follows 1) Center of force trajectory in women's dress shoes display direct movement, compare with center of force trajectory in Sneaker shoes displays a little bit curved slow pronation movement. Sneaker shoes in forefoot part display very quick supination movement, therefore, this shoes effects negative effectiveness for ankle's stability Considering center of force trajectory analyzing the more center of force close straight line, the more movement can be quick movement for locomotion. For foot pressure distribution, center of force trajectory in locomotion is better to curved trajectory with pronation movement. So sneaker shoes style is good shoes considering center of pressure distribution trajectory compare with women's dress shoes. 2) Women's dress shoes increased peak pressure in medial, this is effected by high hill's height. The more increased women's dress shoes's height, the more women's peak pressure will increase, pronation can increase compare with before. Supination movement increase, this focused pressure in lateral, also, supination increased more. If the supination movement increased, foot pressure focused in lateral, therefore, it is appeared force distribution in gait direction. This is bad movement in foot's stability. 3) Women's dress shoes in landing phase displayed a long time, this is when women's dress shoes wear, gait movement is unbalance, so, landing phase displayed a long time. For compensation in gait, swing phase quick movement. 4) Women's dress shoes displayed peak pressure distribution in lateral of rearfoot part, Sneakers shoes displayed peak pressure distribution in medial of forefoot part. Its results has good impact absorption compare with women's dress shoes. In forefoot part, sneakers shoes has good propulsive force compare with women's dress shoes.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2014

Objectives : Postural instability and gait difficulty(PIGD) can develop in all Parkinson's disease patients, especially late in the disease course, but does not respond well to conventional dopamine treatment. This study aimed to report three cases of PIGD in Parkinson's disease patients treated with Korean and Western medicine treatment. Methods : We used acupuncture, bee venom acupuncture, herbal medicine and moxibustion to treat patients during hospitalization. They continued Western medication and received rehabilitation treatment. We observed the changes of PIGD using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale(UPDRS). Results : After treatment, PIGD symptoms improved and UPDRS scores were decreased. Especially, scores of falling, walking, gait and postural stability subsections related with PIGD were decreased. In addition, general conditions of patients were improved. Conclusions : This study suggests that Korean medicine treatment could be effective in the treatment of PIGD in Parkinson's disease patients.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2018

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the effects of freezing of gait on spatiotemporal variables, ground reaction forces (GRFs), and joint moments during the sit-to-walk task at the preferred and maximum speeds in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Method: The subjects were classified by a neurologist into 12 freezers, 12 non-freezers, and 12 controls. Sit-to-walk parameters were measured during three repetitions of the task in a random order at the preferred and maximum possible speeds. Results: In the sit-to-walk task at the preferred speed, the freezers and non-freezers exhibited a higher peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) in the sit-to-stand phase and lower step velocity (p<0.001), step length (p<0.001), and peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) in the first-step phase than the controls. The freezers had higher peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) and peak moment of the hip joint (p=0.008) in the sit-to-stand phase than the non-freezers. In the sit-to-walk phase at the maximum speed, the freezers and non-freezers had lower peak moment of the hip joint (p=0.008) in the sit-to-stand phase than the controls. The freezers and non-freezers displayed lower step velocity (p<0.001) and peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) in the first-step phase than the controls. The freezers showed higher peak moments of the hip joint in the sit-to-stand phase than the non-freezers (p=0.008). Conclusion: The PD patients had reduced control ability in sit-to-stand motions for efficient performance of the sit-to-walk task and reduced performance in the sit-to-walk task. Furthermore, the freezers displayed reduced control ability in the sit-to-stand task. Finally, the PD patients exhibited a lower ability to control dynamic stability with changes in speed than the controls.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.299-309
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• 2014

When biped robots make turns, the ability to walk stably and precisely along any circular path is crucial. In this context, inverse kinematics solutions are found for accurate gait realization, and new zero moment point(ZMP) equations are derived with respect to the cyclindrical coordinate system to facilitate generation of stable walking patterns. Then, appropriate steady and transitional walking patterns are both proposed in form of time functons. Subsequently, walking patterns for a path but of different speeds are generated using the functions and associated formulas, and preliminarily checked for stability based on the ZMP equations. Upon comparison of those cases, one can see how and when robots may fall down during circular walking. Finally, those patterns are put to test on the sample robot by ADAMS(R) along with the inverse kinematics solutions and a new balance control scheme compensating for insufficient stability particulary during the initial transition period. Test results show that the robot can walk along the circular path as predicted at a resonably high speed despite the distributed mass and ground contact effects, validating effectiveness of the suggested approach.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.351-367
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to identity effects of virtual reality(VR) program related to standing postural control on balance, gait and brain activation patterns in chronic hemiplegic stroke patients. Subjects were assigned randomly to either VR group (n=12) or the control group (n=12) when the study began. Both groups received conventional physical therapy for 2 to 3 times per week. In addition to conventional physical therapies, VR group trained 3 types of virtual reality programs using IREX for standing postural control during 4 weeks (4 times/week, 30 minutes/time). Subjects were assessed for static and dynamic balance parameters using BPM, functional balance using Berg Balance Scale related to movement of paretic lower limb before and after 4 weeks of virtual reality training. The results of this study were as follows. 1. Following VR training, VR group demonstrated the marked improvement on dynamic mean balance, anteroposterior limits of stability (AP angle) and mediolateral limits of stability (ML angle). 2. Following VR training, both groups scored higher on Berg Balance Scale. However, a comparison of mean change revealed differences between groups. In conclusion, these data suggest that the postural control training using VR programs improve dynamic and functional balance performance in chronic hemiplegic stroke patients.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1530-1534
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• 2004

This paper presents a novel bio-mimetic quadruped walking robot with a waist joint, which connects the front and the rear parts of the body. The new robot, called ELIRO-1(Eating LIzard RObot version 1), can bend its body while the legs is transferred, thereby increasing the stride and speed of the robot. The waist-jointed walking robot can move easily from side to side, which is an important feature to guarantee a larger gait stability margin than that of a conventional single rigid-body walking robot. We design the mechanical structure of the robot, which is small and light to have high movability and high degree of human friendship. In this paper, we describe characteristics of the waist joint and leg mechanism as well as the analysis using ADAMS to select appropriate actuators. In addition, a hardware and software of the controller of ELIRO-1 are described.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.626-633
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• 2009

A motion planning algorithm is presented in this paper for a commercialized quadruped walking of robot pet. Stable walking is the basic requirement for a commercial-purpose legged robot. In order to secure the walking stability, modified body sway to the centroid of support polygon is addressed. By representation of walking motion with respect to the world coordinate system rather than body coordinate, it is possible to design the several gaits in unified fashion. The initial gait posture is introduced to maximize the stride and to achieve fast walking. The proposed walking motion planning is verified through computer simulation and experiments.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.134.2-134
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• 2001

This paper treats the implementation of a statically stable control system for a biped walking robot with 10 degrees-of-freedom. Statically stable walking of a biped robot can be realized by keeping the center of mass (COM) inside the sole of the supporting foot (or feet) during single-support or double-support phases. We predetermined five static positions for walking based on the COM method. The positions can be represented by the length of the gait, the width between the feet, the height of the foot and two parameters in the hip movement. With the five parameters, we calculated the position trajectory. And we got the angular trajectories of 10 joints from the posit ion trajectory using the position tracking control and neural network. By tracking the angular trajectories, the robot can walk maintaining stability. We implemented walking of a biped robot throught the above ...

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.11 s.176
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• pp.182-189
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• 2005

The human knee joint is the intermediate joint of the lower limb that is the largest and most complex joint in the body. Understanding of joint-articulating surface motion is essential for the joint wear, stability, mobility, degeneration, determination of proper diagnosis and so on. However, many studies analyzed the passive motion of the lower limb because of the skin marker artefact and some studies described medial and lateral condyle of a femur as a simple sphere due to the complexity of geometry. Thus, in this paper, we constructed a three-dimensional geometric model of the human knee from the geometry of its anatomical structures using non-uniform B-spline surface fitting as a study for the kinematic analysis of more realistic human knee model. In addition, we developed and verified 6-DOF contact model of the human knee joint using $C^2$ continuous surface of the inferior region of a femur, considering the relative motion of shank to thigh during locomotion.