Treadmill instrumentalization

Tek je eden od osnovnih načinov za premikanje človeka v prostoru. Preučevanje arheoloških ostankov je nekatere raziskovalce pripeljalo do sklepanja, da je tek v preteklosti igral pomembno vlogo pri evoluciji človeka. Dandanes je tek ena od najpriljubljenejših in najdostopnejših vrst rekreacije. Z večanjem popularnosti teka se veča tudi število tekaških poškodb. Mehanizmi pojava poškodb so v večini dobro razumljeni, še vedno pa ni rešeno vprašanje, kako poškodbe preprečiti, kar je dobra motivacija za izdelavo instrumentalizirane tekalne steze. V tej diplomski nalogi smo razvili nadgradnjo že obstoječe tekalne steze, ki omogoča merjenje nekaterih osnovnih parametrov za preučevanje biomehanike teka. Sile na podlago pri teku smo zaznavali s pomočjo štirih senzorjev za merjenje sil in navorov JR3, za zaznavanje premikanja pa smo uporabili sistem Optotrak. Bistveno pri izgradnji tekalne steze je bila evaluacija, s katero smo preverili ustrezno delovanje steze. Ena od glavnih nalog je natančno določanje točke prijemališča CoP. Z dobro določeno točko CoP lahko opravimo inverzno Newton-Eulerjevo dinamično analizo in določimo obremenitve v sklepih. Za določanje CoP je bilo potrebno senzorni sitem na tekalni stezi skalibrirati. Po kalibraciji smo primerjali meritve tekalne steze z meritvami na pritiskovni plošči. Tako izračunan CoP na podplatu, kot tudi sile v gleženjskem sklepu so ustrezne pri predpostavki, da upoštevamo določene omejitve tekalne steze.Running is a fundamental motion maneuver which allows humans to move. Through the study of archaeological remains some researchers suggest that running influenced evolution of humans. Today running is one of the most popular and affordable means of recreation. With increasing number of runners there is also increase in running related injuries. Mechanism for determining reasons for injuries are well understood. Unfortunately we are still not sure how to prevent those injuries therefore we have good motivation for creating our own instrumented treadmill. In this thesis we have developed an upgrade for existing laboratory treadmill with which we were able to measure significant biomechanical parameters for gait analysis. Ground reaction forces were measured with four three dimensional force transducers JR3, for motion capture we used Optotrak. To ensure reliability of our custom instrumented treadmill we performed multiple evaluation tests. One of our main goals is to determine the center of pressure on foot CoP, which is crucial for inverse Newton-Euler dynamic analysis. After calibration of our instrumented treadmill we compared calculated forces and moments in ankle joint and CoP on the shoe outsole with corresponding forces, moments and CoP gathered from force plate. The results show that with developed instrumented treadmill we can measure the CoP and forces accurately with some restrictions