Linking whole-body angular momentum and step placement during perturbed human walking

Human locomotion is remarkably robust to environmental disturbances. Previous studies have thoroughly investigated how perturbations influence body dynamics and what recovery strategies are used to regain balance. Fewer studies have attempted to establish formal links between balance and the recovery strategies that are executed to regain stability. We hypothesized that there would be a strong relationship between the magnitude of imbalance and recovery strategy during perturbed walking. To test this hypothesis, we applied transient ground surface translations that varied in magnitude, direction and onset time while 11 healthy participants walked on a treadmill. We measured stability using integrated whole-body angular momentum (iWBAM) and recovery strategy using step placement. We found the strongest relationships between iWBAM and step placement in the frontal plane for earlier perturbation onset times in the perturbed step (R2=0.52, 0.50) and later perturbation onset times in the recovery step (R2=0.18, 0.25), while correlations were very weak in the sagittal plane (all R2 <= 0.13). These findings suggest that iWBAM influences step placement, particularly in the frontal plane, and that this influence is sensitive to perturbation onset time. Lastly, this investigation is accompanied by an open-source dataset to facilitate research on balance and recovery strategies in response to multifactorial ground surface perturbations, including 96 perturbation conditions spanning all combinations of three magnitudes, eight directions and four gait cycle onset times.

Automated summary

This study reveals that human locomotion is robust to environmental disturbances and establishes a strong relationship between balance and recovery strategies. The open-source dataset provided in this investigation enables further research on the effects of multifactorial ground surface perturbations on balance and recovery strategies.