Some insights into the dynamics of human gait: applications to healthy adults, children and amputees

A comprehensive biomechanical analysis of gait dynamics can be performed with multi-body (musculoskeletal) simulations, which are complicated to develop for populations such as children or persons with a lower limb amputation. In this presentation, we review several approaches based on the inverse pendulum principle and joint moment computations, and review several biomechanical parameters to analyse the stability and control of human gait. Applications to young children and above-knee amputees reveal different walking strategies compared to healthy adults. Several remarks illustrate the role of passive structures (soft tissues and tendons, prosthetic components) in the dynamics of human gait.