On the mechanical contribution of head stabilization to passive dynamics of anthropometric walkers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how head stabilization mechanically influences the passive dynamics of human-like walking, using simplified models and robotic analogies to gain new insights into gait stability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel anthropometric model and an original cart upper-body model to analyze the mechanical effects of head stabilization on walking dynamics.

Findings

Head stabilization significantly affects walking dynamics.

The mechanical influence varies with control parameters.

Models reveal the importance of head orientation in gait stability.

Abstract

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.