Assessment of the laterality effects through forearm reaction forces in walker assisted gait

AbstractIn this paper it is presented a study of the laterality components in walker assisted gait for elderly or disabled people. This work relies on the measurement of forearm reaction forces in the SIMBIOSIS platform and their relation with the lateral movement of Centre of Gravity (CoG) of the user body during gait with the walker. The discussion presented shows that the reaction forces of the forearm have a strong correlation with the lateral movement of CoG, and suggests that CoG and FRF have proportional relationship particular for each subject and for each gait speed gait