• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the muscle mechanical properties of the pelvic axial pre-rotational movement for the Jireugi in the Taekwondo Juchumseogi stance. Eleven elite Taekwondo Poomsae athletes participated. Each participant performed 5 right hand Jireugi in Juchumseogi stance as fast and strong as possible while their motion was recorded by a 3D motion analysis system and the ground reaction forces by two force plates. The power and work of the muscular group surrounding the waist were analyzed to verify the effect of the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) theory. The cause of the greater power seems to be the application of the SSC by the muscles surrounding the waist during the preparation phase of the pre-rotation group. For the none pre-rotation group, they only used the concentric contraction of the muscles surrounding the waist. Because the pre-rotation group used the SSC theory, they had the effect of shortening of the range of movement, creating a fast and more powerful rotation, thus anticipating the increase the magnitude of impact.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 1995

To investigate walkability of ramps, walking patterns of 18 healthy adults,12 aged 20 to 26 and 6 aged 68 to 76,were studied at free,rhythm constrained walking up or down ramp using goniometer and footswitch Ramp inclinations were set 4,8,12,16,20 degrees. The results were as follows. 1)The step length of subjects were decreased significantly in12$^{\circ}C$′or 16′free downramp walking. With regard to step length, some subject groups walked abnormally in 16" or 20" ramp walking 2) The step width of subjects were increased significantly in 12" or 16" ramp walking. 3) The cadence duration of some subject groups were increased in 12" upramp walking. 4) The double stance duration and double stance ratio of some subject groups were increased significantly in 8",12", or 16"upramp walking. 5) The maximum knee flexion angle of stance phase were increased in 12" ramp walking. 6)Most temporal parameters and spatial parameters of gait were increased or decreassd greatly between 4" ramp and 8" ramp or between 8′ramp and 12′ramp. But statistics significancy were not recognized 7) The results suggest that ramp inclination less than 8′(14%) -12′(21%) is desirable for the normal gait the ramp inclination must not exceed 16" -20" in unavoidable circumstances.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2008

An ankle-foot orthosis(AFO) is a brace for persons with gait disabilities to support or replace the function of ankle joint. Ankle-foot orthoses(AFO's) are usually prescribed to alleviate the drop-foot by constraining the excessive plantar flexion. The shape and the strength of the AFO are often based on 'trial and error' due to a lack of knowledge of the stress distribution in the AFO. In this study, an improved stress-freezing method was proposed to measure the stress distribution characteristics in the AFO. As a result, a photoelastic material with low freezing temperature was developed to measure the stresses under a person's direct contact loading condition. The three-dimensional stress-1rozen photoelastic models of AFO's for five stages of stance phase such as heel contact, foot flat, mid stance, heel off, and toe off were produced. The results of photoelastic analysis revealed that the stresses developed in the AFO were varied considerably from tensile to compressive or vice versa, during walking. At the posterior part of ankle joint in the AFO, the maximum compressive stress of 1.81MPa was observed in the mid stance, and the maximum tensile stress of 0.74MPa was observed during heel contact. The overall stress levels in the AFO's were low in the toe off phase. The results suggested that the posterior part of ankle joint might be the most fragile part in the AFO.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.111-119
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to compare the differences of hip and thigh muscle activities between subjects with increased and decreased femoral anteversion during stair ascent. Twelve healthy female volunteers participated in this study. The subjects were divided into two groups (group 1 with increased anteversion of the hip, group 2 with decreased anteversion of the hip). This study analyzed differences in each mean peak gluteus maximus (GM), gluteus medius (GD) and tensor fascia lata (TLF) EMG amplitude: composite mean peak hip muscles (GM, GD, TFL) EMG amplitude ratios and in each mean peak vastus medialis oblique (VMO), vastus lateralis (VL), biceps femoris (HM) and semitendinosus (HL) EMG amplitude: composite thigh muscles (VMO, VL, HM, HL) EMG amplitude ratios among subjects with decreased or increased relative femoral anteversion. EMG ratios were compared in the stance and swing phase of stair ascent. Group 1 showed an increased standardized mean GM and GD EMG amplitude and decreased standardized mean TFL to composite mean hip muscles EMG amplitude ratios in stair ascent during both stance and swing phase. Also, group 1 showed an increased standardized mean HL EMG amplitude and decreased standardized mean VL and HM to composite mean thigh muscles EMG amplitude ratios in stair ascent during both stance and swing phases. There was no statistically significant difference in vastus medialis oblique between subjects with increased or decreased relative femoral anteversion. In order to provide rehabilitation professionals with a clearer picture of the specific requirements of the stair climbing task, further research must be expanded to include a wider range of age groups that represent the general public, such as including middle-aged healthy persons.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1021-1028
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• 2011

The objective of this paper is to optimize the design parameters of a novel mechanism for a robotic knee orthosis. The feature of the proposed knee othosis is to drive a knee joint with independent actuation during swing and stance phases, which can allow an actuator with fast rotation to control swing motions and an actuator with high torque to control stance motions, respectively. The quadriceps device operates in five-bar links with 2-DOF motions during swing phase and is changed to six-bar links during stance phase by the contact motion to the patella device. The hamstring device operates in a slider-crank mechanism for entire gait cycle. The suggested kinematic model will allow a robotic knee orthosis to use compact and light actuators with full support during walking. However, the proposed orthosis must use additional linkages than a simple four-bar mechanism. To maximize the benefit of reducing the actuators power by using the developed kinematic design, it is necessary to minimize total weight of the device, while keeping necessary actuator performances of torques and angular velocities for support. In this paper, we use a SGA (Simple Genetic Algorithm) to minimize sum of total link lengths and motor power by reducing the weight of the novel knee orthosis. To find feasible parameters, kinematic constraints of the hamstring and quadriceps mechanisms have been applied to the algorithm. The proposed optimization scheme could reduce sum of total link lengths to half of the initial value. The proposed optimization scheme can be applied to reduce total weight of general multi-linkages while keeping necessary actuator specifications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.24-24
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• 2003

For the elderly, achieving a close-to-normal ambulation is important for activities of daily life. Recent researches of SE(Silver Engineering) restoring physical ability would help the elderly by developing the advanced gait assisting devices and orthoses. For the applications using the advanced technologies, the gait characteristics of the elderly must be understood. However, a few studies were performed to investigate the physiological or pathological gaits. The purpose of this study is to provide the gait analysis data and also to investigate relationships between alignment of the lower limb, foot progression angle and knee joint moments in the healthy elderly. By participating a total of 20 healthy elderly persons in this study, the following facts were found: 1) Cadence showed 114.8 steps/min, gait speed showed 1.05 m/s, time per a stride showed 1.06 sec, time per a step showed 0.53 sec, single-supporting phase was 0.41 sec, double-supporting phase was 0.24 sec, stride length was 1.04m, Step length was 0.56m; 2) The maximum knee flexion angle through swing phase showed left 46.82$^{\circ}$, right 40.19$^{\circ}$ and the maximum knee extension angle showed left -1.32$^{\circ}$, right 2.01$^{\circ}$. Knee varus showed left 26.90$^{\circ}$, right 30.93$^{\circ}$; 3) The maximum knee flexion moment showed left 0.363 Nm/kg, right 0.464 Nm/kg, The maximum knee extension moment showed left 0.389 Nm/kg, right 0.463 Nm/kg. The maximum knee adduction moment showed left 0.332 Nm/kg, right 0.379 Nm/kg. The maximum internal rotational moment showed left 0.13 Nm/kg, right 0.140 Nm/kg; 4) The subjects who had varus alignment of the lower extremity had statistically higher in knee adduction moment in mid stance phase; and 5) The subjects who had large foot progression angle had statistically lower in knee adduction moment in late stance phase.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.159-171
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to provide information about kinematic variables of the gliding and delivery motion of Hyung-Keun Lee, a high school shot putter who was ranked 1st at the 2011 National Sports Festivals. Three-Dimensional motion analysis using a system of 4 video cameras at a sampling frequency of 60 Hz was conducted during shot-putting events at the 2011 National Sports Festivals. During the gliding and delivery phase of the player the results showed following characteristics; 1) The gliding technique types of the player appeared to be the short-long technique as the gliding and stance length ratio were $42.3{\pm}3.87$ % and $57.7{\pm}3.87$ %, respectively. In addition, the trajectory of shots during the gliding and delivery phase showed different trajectory patterns with "S-shaped" type of elite players due to the deviation from a central axis of the APSS (athletic-plus shot system). 2) The horizontal velocity of COG made from gliding should maintain the velocity during transition and release phase, but the player showed a small momentum for a gradual decrease of velocity. 3) Therefore, the player requires to adjust an appropriate ratio between gliding and stance length with a strong muscle power at the trunk, throwing arm, and the lower extremity during gliding and delivery phase.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.559-566
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• 2013

PURPOSE: The present study examines how feedback respiratory exercise affects gait performance of stroke patients. METHODS: Forty stroke patients were randomly divided into an experiment group and a control group. For the former group, patients went through a half-hour of training therapy and a half-hour of feedback respiratory device exercise. For the latter group, patients went through 30 minutes of training therapy and a half-hour of motomed exercise. All participants had five training sessions each week for four weeks. For measurement, a GAITRite system was used to examine spatial parameters, and functional ambulation performance before and after the training. RESULT: In terms of spatial parameters, double support ratio, stance phase increased significantly in the experiment group after the walking exercise(p<.05). FAP rose more significantly in the experiment group than in the control group(p<.05). In comparison of two exercise groups, double support ratio, Stance phase, gait velocity, FAP was significant difference(p<.05). CONCLUSION: The experiment results showed that feedback respiratory exercise is effective in enhancing gait performance.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 2020

In Integration Approach (IA)-based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR), it is important to detect the exact zero-velocity of the foot with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). By detecting zero-velocity during the stance phase of the foot touching the ground and executing Zero-velocity UPdaTe (ZUPT) at the exact time, stable navigation information can be provided by the PDR. When the pace is fast, however, it is not easy to accurately detect the zero-velocity because of the small stance phase interval and the large signal variance of the corresponding interval. Incorrect zero-velcity detection greatly causes navigation errors of IA-based PDR. In this paper, we propose a method to detect the zero-velocity stably even at high speed by novel buffering of IMU's output data and signal processing of the buffer. And we design a PDR based on this. By analyzing the performance of the proposed Zero-Velocity Detection (ZVD) algorithm and ZVD-based PDR through experiemnts, we confirm that the proposed method can provide accurate navigation information of pedestrians such as firefighters in the indoor space.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2017

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between leg stiffness and kinematic variables according to load while running. Method: Participants included eight healthy men (mean age, $22.75{\pm}1.16years$; mean height: $1.73{\pm}0.01m$; mean body weight, $71.37{\pm}5.50kg$) who ran with no load or a backpack loaded with 14.08% or 28.17% of their body weight. The analyzed variables included leg stiffness, ground contact time, center of gravity (COG) displacement and Y-axis velocity, lower-extremity joint angle (hip, knee, ankle), peak vertical force (PVF), and change in stance phase leg length. Results: Dimensionless leg stiffness increased significantly with increasing load during running, which was the result of increased PVF and contact time due to decreased leg lengths and COG displacement and velocity. Leg length and leg stiffness showed a negative correlation (r = -.902, $R^2=0.814$). COG velocity showed a similar correlation with COG displacement (r = .408, $R^2=.166$) and contact time (r = -.455, $R^2=.207$). Conclusion: Dimensionless leg stiffness increased during running with a load. In this investigation, leg stiffness due to load increased was most closely related to the PVF, knee joint angle, and change in stance phase leg length. However, leg stiffness was unaffected by change in contact time, COG velocity, and COG displacement.