Dynamic Response of Whole Body System Subjected to Walking Generated Excitation

A human body is subjected to periodic excitations when walking at a uniform rate. In this study, the whole body is modeled as a multi degree of freedom system. The excitation is strictly caused by the muscle action, however, in the present study it is modeled as a sinusoidal acceleration input to all the masses. In view of the changing boundary conditions at the alternating feet movements, the system under study is a time varying system. However, in order to simplify the study, the system is considered as piecewise time invariant for each half period when one foot is in contact with the ground. The natural frequencies, responses in the time and frequency domains are computed, presented and discussed.Copyright © 2003 by ASME