Numerical study on the walking load based on inverted-pendulum model

In this paper, an inverted-pendulum model consisting of a point supported by spring limbs with roller feet is adopted to simulate human walking load. To establish the kinematic motion of first and second single and double support phases, the Lagrangian variation method was used. Given a set of model parameters, desired walking speed and initial states, the Newmark-beta method was used to solve the above kinematic motion for studying the effects of roller radius, stiffness, impact angle, walking speed, and step length on the ground reaction force, energy transfer, and height of center of mass transfer. The numerical simulation results show that the inverted-pendulum model for walking is conservative as there is no change in total energy and the duration time of double support phase is 50-70% of total time. Based on the numerical analysis, a dynamic load factor alpha wi is proposed for the traditional walking load model.