Abstract
To determine the effects of nonlevel obstacles on obstacle-avoidance movements, young adults were asked to step over obstacles with various angles and heights, and the gaits were collected by using 3D motion capture system VICON-512. From the collected data, we defined the distance between the marker placed on the 5th metatarsal and the obstacle as “Lateral Toe Clearances” and the distance between the marker placed on the 1st metatarsal and the obstacle as “Medial Toe Clearances”, and compared among leveled-obstacles and tilted-obstacles. There were no significant differences in lateral toe clearances among the leveled-obstacles of varying heights. However, the lateral toe clearances significantly decreased when stepping over the tilted-obstacles, compared to the leveled-obstacles. These results suggest that when people step over tilted-obstacles, they cannot raise their feet as much as they do when they step over leveled-obstacles, causing an increase in the chance of stumbling.
