Evaluation of the gait of elderly people using an assisting cart - (Gait on flat surface)

The development of machines for assisting the elderly society during walkin g is becoming increasingly important these days. Some assisting machines of a cart type have been developed. However, it has not been clarified how th e machines an effect the generated muscle tensions and energy consumption o f human users. in this study, we have evaluated human walk using a cart dev eloped for this research. We have estimated the energy consumption based on the musculo-skeletal model. It is shown that the energy consumption using the cart decreased by 15% from that of the normal gait. Our evaluation meth od will be useful for developing practical assisting machines for walking.