STABILITY ANALYSIS OF A SIMPLE CPG-BASED WALKING MODEL
Open Access
- Author:
- Devlin, Patrick Joseph
- Area of Honors:
- Engineering Science
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Joseph Paul Cusumano, Thesis Supervisor
Joseph Paul Cusumano, Thesis Supervisor
Corina Stefania Drapaca, Thesis Honors Advisor
Judith A Todd Copley, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- locomotion
stability analysis
delay reconstruction
Central Pattern Generator - Abstract:
- Human locomotion, one of the most common of everyday occurrences, still eludes complete understanding. While it is simple to measure people’s movements, it is very difficult to understand how they control them. When conducting experiments on humans, researchers do not have access to the variables that drive the control systems of the subject, which limits the range of methods that can be applied. To bypass this inhibitor, many researchers use computer simulations utilizing differential equations. These studies provide access to all necessary variables, however the models are often crude and unrealistic. These different branches of studies have both contributed to the understanding of locomotion, however their effectiveness is limited because of the difficulty of comparison. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between the two different types of studies by exploring an experimental method which, if validated, could study the stability properties of both humans and computer models. This process relies on delay reconstruction to extend the application of the limited laboratory variables to a higher dimensional analysis of the stability properties and gait transitions.