Influence of knee flexion angle at initial contact and hip internal rotation on ‘stiff-knee’ gait: A dynamical 3D approach

Abstract

Lack of knee flexion is one of the most common gait deviations in cerebral palsy children. Although in many cases this gait deviation is associated with a crouch gait and/or a hip internal rotation, the impact of these factors on stiff-knee gait remains poorly pursued. A 3D full body gait simulator was designed based on an iCUB’s robot model. Gait cycles were synthesized in XDE. Different gait patterns were simulated with a varying knee flexion angle at initial contact from 37° to 64° and minimum hip internal rotation from 0° to 30°, both unilaterally and bilaterally. We concluded that knee flexion angle at initial contact has an influence on stiff-knee gait.