[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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The purpose of this study was to investigate relations with the deflection characteristic of the physical center of mass at landing of the backward stepping and the joint moment, and the effect of the aging. The participants in this study were seventeen elderly and eleven young subjects. Using a three-dimensional motion capture device and force plates, we measured the center of mass deflection characteristics of the body, thorax, pelvis segment and the moment of the lower leg joint during landing of the backward stepping. The results showed a significant negative correlation between the amount of the body center of mass lateral deflection and ankle plantar flexion/eversion moments in the elderly group. This study indicated that plantar flexion/eversion moment of the ankle joint were involved in physical deflection characteristics during backward stepping landing reactions of the elderly group.

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Some assistive technologies for persons with dementia have been developed to facilitate awareness of information by providing the information visually. However, these technologies have been evaluated by subjective assessment and learning process, and their effectiveness in daily life has not become clear yet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of such assistive technology including the process of familiarization and utilization for a person with dementia. A four month clinical evaluation of a daily-plan indicator was conducted using the field-based method. Results of a user’s speech and behavior analysis showed that the ratio of information awareness was increased from 50 to 97 after six week of use and 100% after four months of use respectively. The ratio of independence in information awareness had also increased from 0 to 57%. The use of vivid colors was found to be helpful for increasing the use of the indicator.

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Passive dynamic walking is one of the walking modes for a biped robot. In this mode, each leg is driven by gravitational force and the walk continues as a series of inverted pendulums. Although it is an energy efficient walk mode, it is known as a highly conditionsensitive method. For this, we proposed a sole shape design that achieves stability of walking over a wide range of conditions such as inclination and surface of a road. This sole shape is designed to provide a recovery force by pressing onto a floor in cases where the body inclines too much. The stabilization effect is easily applicable to human shoes by simple attachments onto soles. By using this stabilization effect shoes, walking support, especially for elder persons not to turn over, is expected to be achieved naturally without any external power. We conducted preliminary experiments with elder persons using the shoes. As the result, it was shown that the most users felt ease to walk on flat floor and slight slopes.

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