The metabolic cost of carrying an additional mass at different locations on the body relates to many areas, such as ergonomics, the military, obesity, and the design of prosthetic and powered exoskeletons devices. It was found that the most important factors that affect change in energy expenditure are the speed of locomotion , the magnitude of the additional mass, and the location of the additional mass on the body . It was suggested that metabolic cost increases linearly as the speed increases, and that it also in-creases linearly as the mass carried is increased. However, other researchers depicted these relations as nonlinear. Further, to the best of our knowledge the combined effect of the weight speed has not been studied. Yet for practical applications it is important to be able to predict the metabolic cost for any given combination of speed and mass, which has not been possible from previous studies. Therefore, in this study we aim to model the change in metabolic cost as a function of walking speed and the additional mass, at three body locations: the back, the knee, and the ankle. This has been done by a meta-analysis of previous published studies.

Категория: Научные статьи | Нет комментариев »

Комментарии