The energetics of split-belt walking
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Split-belt treadmill walking is commonly used for stroke rehabilitation and motor learning experiments. In this dissertation, I considered split-belt walking from the perspective of mechanical energy. I first designed a split-belt rimless wheel simulation model to demonstrate how the split-belt treadmill could act as an external energy source providing power to a person during split-belt walking. I demonstrated that a split-belt rimless wheel can passively walk steadily forward on split belts, even though the same wheel would require energy to walk steadily on belts set to the same speed, known as tied belts. I then conducted a human-subject experiment measuring the energy cost of walking for a variety of both split- and tied-belt speed combinations. I found that the energy cost for human split-belt walking is similar to the cost of tied-belt walking at the average belt speed. Increasing the belt speed difference tends to increase the energy cost of walking. This suggests that people are not able to take advantage of the treadmill power to lower their energy costs. Finally, I conducted an experiment to understand why positive treadmill power during split-belt walking is not metabolically beneficial. I found that people dissipated the treadmill energy rather than using the power effectively, and the gait adjustments required to achieve net positive treadmill work caused other walking costs to increase. These energy-cost findings inform future split-belt treadmill experiments by enabling researchers to design protocols with consistent levels of energetic load. Our understanding of how people interact with positive treadmill work enables assistive device designers to analyze whether their devices provide work such that people use the work effectively rather than dissipating it.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Butterfield, Julia Kathleen |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Collins, Steve (Steven Hartley) |
| Thesis advisor | Collins, Steve (Steven Hartley) |
| Thesis advisor | Delp, Scott |
| Thesis advisor | Okamura, Allison |
| Degree committee member | Delp, Scott |
| Degree committee member | Okamura, Allison |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Julia Kathleen Butterfield. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/zp664gb2030 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Julia Kathleen Butterfield
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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