jb. left side.7 trials.

time spacing = twenty four Hz

1000

800

600
mm

400

200

-200 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

mm
Figure 1: Sagittal plane view of leg joint centers during a single step, heelstrike to heelstrike. Markers are
the knee indicate different phases of the gait and are referred to in further plots.

Exoskeleton Memo. 14.06.2004.v1. Knee Springlike Behavior Dur-

ing Walking.
dan paluska. june 14, 2004.

1 Analysis Part 1. Fitting mono-articular linear springs to 5 sub-

jects.
Gait data from 5 subjects was analyzed. The subjects were walking at self selected walking speeds ranging
from 1.2 - 1.4 m/s. The subjects ranged in size and weight from 165 to 192 cm and from 57 to 83 kg.
The linear spring constants found for this region were mean 351 Nm/rad , with a standard deviation of
40 Nm/rad. Normalized across the subjects using body weight(BW) and leg length(LL) gives a resulting
’stiffness’ of 0.56 with a standard deviation of 0.12. Figure 1 shows sagittal plane snapshots of the leg during
a single walking cycle. Four sections of the gait are labeled with different markers at the knee joint. The
first part of the gait is labeled with blue circles at the knee joint. This corresponds to initial stance when
the knee is flexing. The next stage of the gait is the mid stance when the knee is extending and the leg is
pivoting over the foot. The next two stages take the leg through the rest of the stance and swing phases. In
this analysis we are primarily concerned with the first two phases of the gait cycle. These are highlighted in
the position and moment graphs of Figure 2.
The linear spring at the knee can also be viewed as a physically linear spring between the hip and ankle
with a non-linear mathematical force-length relationship.

1
 subject JC. averages. position vs. knee torque. subject JB. averages. position vs. knee torque.
70 70

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0

-10 -10
-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Figure 2: Knee angle vs moment averages for 2 of the five gait subjects. The black solid like represents a
linear spring fit to the knee behavior during early stance.

2
 knee position(radians). positive motion is anterior rotation.
0

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1
region of interest
-1.2

-1.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

knee torque(Nm). positive moment generates anterior acceleration.

40

30

20

10

-10

-20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

% of gait cycle.

Figure 3: Joint position and moment data for the human knee during a single stride. From Bogert ’exoten-
dons’ paper. Highlighted area is early stance and indicates region of interest for the following graphs.

2 Analysis Part 2. Resultant moments from various spring models

The data from the Bogert ’Exotendons’ paper was used to analyze several different spring types at the knee.
We are considering the knee only in the initial part of the stance phase as highlighted in Figure 2. We use
the position and torque conventions used in the Bogert paper. Positive torques about the joints result in
anterior accelerations of the distal segment. In the case of the knee, this means a positive torque will serve to
straighten the knee joint. We input the position data into various spring models and calculated the torque
that would result if that spring was actually at the knee. Moment arm or spring constant values were then
optimized with ’fminsearch’ in MATLAB. The cost function used was the integral of the absolute value of
the net remaining torque. Code is available to those interested.
The four spring models were as follows:

1. Rotary spring with constant linear stiffness. This is equivalent to a linear constant stiffness spring at
a fixed radius(acting about a pulley).
m1 = Krotary ∗ theta
2. Linear spring with a constant stiffness acting on a lever(moment arm changing with angle).
m2 = Klinear ∗ r2 ∗ sin(theta) ∗ (Lo − L)
(where L is calculated using the law of cosines)
3. A linear hardening spring acting on a pulley(constant radius).
m3 = Klinear ∗ r3 ∗ (Lo − L) ∗ abs(Lo − L)
4. A linear hardening spring acting on a lever(variable moment arm length).
m4 = −delta. ∗ abs(delta). ∗ gain4. ∗ sin(pi/2 − angleK)

Results from these models are shown in Figure 2. The original knee moment from the human data is
shown in solid blue. The other four spring models are shown as indicated in the figure legend. It is important
to note that all of the spring models have quite similar behavior. All resultant torques lead the actual torque
by a bit as well. This is due to the fact that the actual position leads the actual torque. Any spring of

3
 knee joint moment(Nm). real and simulated spring models.
50
real
m1
m2
40 m3
m4

30

20

10

-10

-20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
% gait cycle

Figure 4: A plot of knee moments. Original knee data is shown in solid blue. All four spring models(m1-m4)
are shown as well. These values are calculated in MATLAB as described in the section.

actual joint power and net joint power for various spring models.
40
power
net1
30 net2
net3
net4
20

10

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50

-60
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
% gait cycle

Figure 5: Knee power and net remaining knee power when spring models(m1-m4) are implemented. Net
remaining powers are calculated by multiplying the net moment by the original velocity data.

4
 Sub 1 Sub 2 Sub 3 Sub 4 Sub 5 Mean Standard Dev Bogert
Leg Length(m) 0.86 0.98 0.92 0.89 0.93
Body Weight(N) 560 809 640 732 752
Kknee (Nm/rad) 361 357 284 392 361 351 40
Max deflection (rad) 0.25 0.22 0.27 0.33 0.29 0.38
Kknee /(BW ∗ LL) 0.749 0.45 0.482 0.602 0.516 0.5598 0.120
Eq Klinear (N/m)

Table 1: Human subjects, their measured parameters and calculated quantities.

the style F = kx or F = kx2 will result in the position leading the torque as shown here. Future work
should include looking into a nonlinear spring with non-zero initial stiffness F = kx(x + of f set). For this
analysis, we are assuming springs only act in one direction. For a bidirectional quadratic spring the formula
is F = kx|x|.
It is also important to note all spring moments start and end at zero. This is a requirement is the springs
are clutched on and off. When clutched on, the springs have zero energy, which means deflection must be
zero. When clutched off, the springs could have non-zero energy but that energy would have to be dumped
somewhere.
Figure 2 shows the knee power from the human data as well as the remaining knee power as calculated
for each of the spring models. The net power for each model is calculated by multiplying the net moment
times the original joint velocity. Notice that net1(the simple constant K rotary spring) is the one spring
model which require net negative power from the knee joint. At least qualitatively, all spring models seem
to leave about the same work for the knee, just in different patterns.

3 About the Human Data

The data from the five subjects used in the first part of the analysis was received in .csv form from Spaulding
gait laboratory. Java code(originally written by AH and modified by DP) was used to extract columns
of interest and heelstrike-to-heelstrike data sets. Table 3 shows the data for the various subjects and the
calculated means.