Effect of environmental factors on level of trip disturbance: a simulation study

Above knee amputees exhibit a higher risk of falling than able-bodied people, so the capacity to recover from trips (a major cause of unintentional falls) is critical for these amputees to prevent fall-related injuries. Although trip recovery approaches using powered prostheses have been proposed, the effectiveness of these approaches has not been evaluated with varied trip-related disturbance levels. Here, we conducted a simulation study to understand the relationship between trip-related disturbance levels and environmental factors. This knowledge could clarify the design space as well as guide design and evaluation techniques of future trip recovery approaches.