Abstract
The force plate is widely used in the rehabilitation center and the hospital for the motion analysis or the evaluation of the artificial leg. However, the commercially available force plate is too costly to be installed in all the establishment where has need of it. In this study, a simplified large size force plate for gait analysis on the level ground, the slope and the step is developed. In this force plate, we use the shear beam type load cell to avoid the measurement error by the position of load cells. In addition, it is possible to analyze the motion of gait on the slope and the stairs by mounting the slope model or the stairs model on the force plate for the level walking. By using the force plate developed in this study, the gait analyses on the level ground, the slope and the stairs are made. The characteristic patterns of the floor reaction forces are observed in the gait analyses on the slope and the stairs. The force plate developed in this study can be used for multipurpose gait analysis on the level ground, slope and stairs.
