Effects of Approaching Direction to the Obstacle Avoidance Movements

Abstract

Present study focused on the effect of approaching directions for stepping over an obstacle. Ten young adults were asked to head towards an obstacle from seven directions (+60, +40, +20, 0, -20, -40, and -60 degrees), and step over it. In each trial, one of the three obstacles with different heights (25mm, 50mm, and 150mm) were placed. Participants repeated the movement against each obstacle condition 5 times for a total of 105 trials. Kinematics while the participants step over the obstacles were recorded using 3-D motion capturing system, and were compared using the following parameters among the conditions: toe clearances, step length, step width, and walking speed. The results revealed that the approaching direction to the obstacles does not critically affect the obstacle avoidance movement in regards to tripping, but may critically affect the movements in regards to loss-of-balance.