Farrell, M. T. "Angular Momentum in Turns and Abrupt Starts: Strategies for Bipedal Balance Control"

Abstract

Transients occur in human walking during a transition to, from, and between steady state walking and act as an impulse destabilizing an otherwise normal gait cycle. Turns and accelerated starts are all common transients encountered and managed intelligently by humans everyday. The population of elderly has increased and understanding balance control in healthy subjects will be more important. In addition, humanoid bipeds are rapidly becoming a more common part of our everyday life. Therefore, they must also be able to navigate our environments adroitly if they are to assist us in our daily living. This thesis takes biomechanical principals of angular momentum and applies them to healthy subjects in an effort to elucidate human balance control strategies. Each transient task is unique, and despite large segmental contributions to whole-body angular momentum during movement, the whole-body angular momentum remains tightly regulated. A analysis of segmental contributions to the principal components explaining more than 90% makes clear the balance control strategy used by healthy humans during these transients.