A predictive walking energy model based on gait phase with suspended backpack

Abstract

Walking with heavy loads is a common task in military affairs and daily life. Considering that the shoulder and leg muscles fatigue will be caused during walking, which will affect the walking endurance and physical health. However, the suspended backpack is found to improve the energy efficiency of walking with a load. In this study, A lightweight suspended backpack is designed and proposing a model for estimating the metabolic cost of a suspended backpack based on gait phase. In this study, four inertial measurement units (IMUs) are fixed on the thigh and shank, six flexible pressure sensors are mounted on the soles of the feet and shoulders, respectively. The gait is defined as four successive phases. For each phase, the muscle tension is solved based on the muscle moment balance theory. Based on the phase segmentation method, the ECCF index is calculated by adding the gait phase constraint and backpack data calculation into the energy prediction model, and the relatively accurate data is obtained. In addition, In order to study the effects of the suspended backpack with different parameters on the cost metabolism, gait phase and biomechanics, the subjects need to carry the same load of 16.5 kg to walk 400 m at the different speeds, respectively. A group of seven healthy subjects in the same walking condition need to conduct two experiments: suspended backpack work (SB) and ordinary backpack (OB). The experimental results show that the suspended backpack can reduce plantar pressure and shoulder pressure in the SB condition. And at the speed of 5.0 km/h, ground reaction force (GRF) and shoulder reaction force (SRF) were reduced by 11.59 % and 13.22 % in the SB condition compared to the OB condition, respectively.