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Differences between local and orbital dynamic stability during human walking.

Jonathan B Dingwell1, Hyun Gu Kang

  • 1Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, University of Texas, 1 University Station, D3700 Austin, TX 78712, USA. jdingwell@mail.utexas.edu

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
|July 28, 2007
PubMed
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Human walking is orbitally stable despite local instability. Treadmill walking slightly improved stability in some measures, but individual variations exist, showing that gait variability doesn't necessarily cause falls.

Area of Science:

  • Biomechanics
  • Human locomotion
  • Dynamical systems theory

Background:

  • Quantifying locomotor stability is challenging, lacking a common definition or method.
  • Orbital stability in engineering uses Floquet multipliers for periodic systems.
  • Local stability for aperiodic systems uses divergence exponents for continuous real-time perturbations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify the orbital stability of human walking using Maximum Floquet Multipliers (Max FM).
  • To compare orbital stability between level ground and treadmill walking.
  • To investigate the relationship between orbital stability and local divergence exponents.

Main Methods:

  • Recorded triaxial trunk accelerations and lower extremity sagittal joint angles from ten healthy subjects.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Computed Max FM for each gait cycle percentage to assess orbital stability.
  • Used ANOVA for condition comparisons and correlations for stability measure relationships.

    • Main Results:

    • All subjects demonstrated orbitally stable walking (Max FM < 1.0), despite prior findings of local instability.
    • Treadmill walking showed statistically significant improvements in trunk accelerations and ankle kinematics' orbital stability.
    • Correlations between Max FM and local divergence exponents were largely insignificant, indicating distinct stability concepts.

    Conclusions:

    • Human walking's inherent variability (local instability) does not compromise its orbital stability.
    • Orbital stability provides a valuable metric for understanding gait dynamics and fall risk.
    • Further research can define boundaries between stable and unstable gaits, informing fall prevention strategies.