Define walking Walking speed is defined as the center-of-mass velocity in the fore–aft direction. Steady-state walking is thought of as a state in which walking speed is constant. In reality, walking speed fluctuates slightly throughout the gait cycle, but during steady-state walking, the net change in walking speed from the beginning to the end of the gait cycle is zero.
(a) For steady-state walking, sketch the vertical and horizontal fore–aft ground reaction force components as functions of percent gait cycle. Which of these plots can be used to directly compute the fluctuations in horizontal fore–aft velocity over the gait cycle?
(b) On the relevant ground reaction force plot from part (a), label the following: (i) range when walking speed is increasing, (ii) range when walking speed is decreasing, (iii) instant when walking speed reaches a maximum, and (iv) instant when walking speed reaches a minimum. Please explain your answers. To simplify the problem, you may focus your analysis on the ground reaction forces acting on a single limb (i.e., ignore the ground reaction forces from the contralateral limb during double-support).
...