On the mechanical contribution of head stabilization to passive dynamics of anthropometric walkers
This work addresses the mechanical role of head stabilization in human gait, which is incremental as it builds on prior heuristic findings to provide deeper insights.
The study investigated the mechanical effect of head stabilization on walking dynamics using a simplified anthropometric model, finding that a stabilized head-neck system significantly influences walking dynamics and its sensitivity to control parameters.
During the steady gait, humans stabilize their head around the vertical orientation. While there are sensori-cognitive explanations for this phenomenon, its mechanical e fect on the body dynamics remains un-explored. In this study, we take profit from the similarities that human steady gait share with the locomotion of passive dynamics robots. We introduce a simplified anthropometric D model to reproduce a broad walking dynamics. In a previous study, we showed heuristically that the presence of a stabilized head-neck system significantly influences the dynamics of walking. This paper gives new insights that lead to understanding this mechanical e fect. In particular, we introduce an original cart upper-body model that allows to better understand the mechanical interest of head stabilization when walking, and we study how this e fect is sensitive to the choice of control parameters.