Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Comparison Of Non-Prosthetic And Prosthetic Strides In A Pendulum-Based Model, Catherine T. Cronister

Student Scholarship

In this paper, we explore the differences in a non-prosthetic and prosthetic single stride. We accomplish this by developing a model based on a forced, triple pendulum. We use this model to describe a single stride and alter where the internal force comes from to simulate a prosthetic and non-prosthetic stride. We numerically solve our model with Matlab. We find that our model qualitatively represents the energy gap between a prosthetic and non-prosthetic stride. Our model also agreed qualitatively with alterations of the prosthetic designed to decrease the energy gap between the two strides.