Seasonal variation in the distribution of daily stepping in 11-13 year old school children

Seasonality studies in adolescent’s physical activity(PA) tend to report total PA (e.g. steps/day) rather than more specific detail such as steps/hour. This study compared the detailed changes in PA between seasons. Thirty three adolescents (baseline age 12.2 ± 0.3y) wore the activPAL activity monitor for 8 days on two occasions. Steps/day were higher in summer (Mdn = 12,879) than winter (Mdn = 0,512), p.05), however, boys had significantly higher step counts in summer between ’13:00-14:00’ (p=.023), ’19:00-20:00’ (p=.032)and ‘20:00-21:00’ (p=.023). Total steps/day masked sex differences within specific hours of the day, particularly evening times. Detailed daily patterns of PA are required to fully understand differences between sexes and across seasons

Exotendons for assistance of human locomotion

BACKGROUND: Powered robotic exoskeletons for assistance of human locomotion are currently under development for military and medical applications. The energy requirements for such devices are excessive, and this has become a major obstacle for practical applications. Legged locomotion in many animals, however, is very energy efficient. We propose that poly-articular elastic mechanisms are a major contributor to the economy of locomotion in such specialized animals. Consequently, it should be possible to design unpowered assistive devices that make effective use of similar mechanisms. METHODS: A passive assistive technology is presented, based on long elastic cords attached to an exoskeleton and guided by pulleys placed at the joints. A general optimization procedure is described for finding the best geometrical arrangement of such "exotendons" for assisting a specific movement. Optimality is defined either as minimal residual joint moment or as minimal residual joint power. Four specific exotendon systems with increasing complexity are considered. Representative human gait data were used to optimize each of these four systems to achieve maximal assistance for normal walking. RESULTS: The most complex exotendon system, with twelve pulleys per limb, was able to reduce the joint moments required for normal walking by 71% and joint power by 74%. A simpler system, with only three pulleys per limb, could reduce joint moments by 46% and joint power by 47%. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that unpowered passive elastic devices can substantially reduce the muscle forces and the metabolic energy needed for walking, without requiring a change in movement. When optimally designed, such devices may allow independent locomotion in patients with large deficits in muscle function

A New Sitting-type Lower-Limb Rehabilitation Robot based on a Spatial Parallel Kinematic Machine

International audienceThis paper proposes a lying/sittingtype lower-limb rehabilitation robot based on a three degrees of freedom spatial parallel kinematic manipulator namely "The Orthoglide" along with an actuated rotational degree of freedom at the endeffector for the purpose of lower-limb rehabilitation treatments. This rehabilitation robot is an end-effector/foot-plate based mechanism which controls the ankle-joint movements to assist physiotherapists in performing therapeutic treatments along with a passive orthosis (supporting system). The conceptual and detail design of the rehabilitation device is presented along with its kinematics. Further, the functional validation of the proposed robot in terms of the kinematic motion capabilities to provide physiological motions like knee flexion-extension, hip adduction-abduction and hip flexion-extension are also investigated. The required safety features for the proposed rehabilitation robot in terms of mechanical constraints and non-actuated joints are also discussed