Analysis of relationship between arm joint stiffness and impact force generated by collision between a wheeled walker and a step

Abstract

The impact force applied to the human hand at the moment of collision between a step and the wheel of a wheeled walker varies greatly depending on the posture of the arm pushing the walker. However, there have been few studies in which the posture of the arm and the magnitude of the impact force have been evaluated. Therefore, the relationship between the posture of the human arm and the impact force has been analyzed with the ellipsoid of inertia at the tip of the hand by modeling the human arm as a 3-link manipulator.