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The adaptation of balance of able-bodied humans when exposed to balance perturbations

Boer, Kylar de (2023) The adaptation of balance of able-bodied humans when exposed to balance perturbations.

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Abstract:Ankle-exoskeletons are devices that can be used for balance assistance. To optimize the usage of these exoskeletons, it needs to be known how people adapt to exoskeleton balance assistance. Before it is possible to do that, it first needs to be known how people adapt their balance in general, without exoskeleton assistance, to external perturbations. Therefore this study investigates the adaptation of balance to unexpected forward pushing perturbations. Four participants received random anterior pushing perturbations at toe-off while walking. The perturbations had a magnitude of 12\% of the body weight for four training trials of 40 perturbations. Before and after the training trials there was a trial of 8 perturbations of the same magnitude. To look for generalization of adaptation there were also two trials, pre- and post-training, with 16 perturbations including 8 perturbations with a magnitude of 8\% and 8 perturbations with a magnitude of 16\% of the bodyweight. The centre of mass (COM) velocity at heelstrike after the perturbation did not change significantly when comparing pre-and post-training trials. There was also no significant adaptation of balance when looking at the generalization of adaptation. It can be concluded that there is no adaptation of balance for the perturbations of this study when looking at the COM velocity.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:TNW: Science and Technology
Subject:50 technical science in general
Programme:Biomedical Technology BSc (56226)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/96693
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