ArticleJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2019
The effects of ankle stiffness on mechanics and energetics of walking with added loads: a prosthetic emulator study.
Article in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of kinesiology taping on joint stability during descending stairs in patients with acute ankle injuries.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Is there a correlation among landing stability, ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, and ankle stiffness during single-leg landing?BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Variable-stiffness prosthesis improves biomechanics of walking across speeds compared to a passive device.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Design, Control, and Evaluation of a Robotic Ankle-Foot Prosthesis Emulator.IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics · 2023Article
- Effects of simulated reduced gravity and walking speed on ankle, knee, and hip quasi-stiffness in overground walking.PloS one · 2022Article
- Reducing stiffness of shock-absorbing pylon amplifies prosthesis energy loss and redistributes joint mechanical work during walking.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2021Article
- Understanding patient preference in prosthetic ankle stiffness.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe human ankle joint has an influential role in the regulation of the mechanics and energetics of gait. The human ankle can modulate its joint 'quasi-stiffness' (ratio of plantarflexion moment to dorsiflexion displacement) in response to various locomotor tasks (e.g., load carriage). However, the direct effect of ankle stiffness on metabolic energy cost during various tasks is not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to determine how net metabolic energy cost was affected by ankle stiffness while walking under different force demands (i.e., with and without additional load).
methodsIndividuals simulated an amputation by using an immobilizer boot with a robotic ankle-foot prosthesis emulator. The prosthetic emulator was controlled to follow five ankle stiffness conditions, based on literature values of human ankle quasi-stiffness. Individuals walked with these five ankle stiffness settings, with and without carrying additional load of approximately 30% of body mass (i.e., ten total trials).
resultsWithin the range of stiffness we tested, the highest stiffness minimized metabolic cost for both load conditions, including a ~ 3% decrease in metabolic cost for an increase in stiffness of about 0.0480 Nm/deg/kg during normal (no load) walking. Furthermore, the highest stiffness produced the least amount of prosthetic ankle-foot positive work, with a difference of ~ 0.04 J/kg from the highest to lowest stiffness condition. Ipsilateral hip positive work did not significantly change across the no load condition but was minimized at the highest stiffness for the additional load conditions. For the additional load conditions, the hip work followed a similar trend as the metabolic cost, suggesting that reducing positive hip work can lower metabolic cost.
conclusionWhile ankle stiffness affected the metabolic cost for both load conditions, we found no significant interaction effect between stiffness and load. This may suggest that the importance of the human ankle's ability to change stiffness during different load carrying tasks may not be driven to minimize metabolic cost. A prosthetic design that can modulate ankle stiffness when transitioning from one locomotor task to another could be valuable, but its importance likely involves factors beyond optimizing metabolic cost.
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