| The Ergonomics Research Group (ERG) at Queen's University has been investigating the effects of load carriage in response to recommendations made at a NATO Research and Technology Organization Specialist Meeting in June 2000. This has led to the development of a load carriage limit (LCL) equation and a biomechanical model. In the work presented here, triaxial accelerations recorded from the upper body were examined to assess alterations in gait patterns caused by backpack load carriage. These alterations may add to the physiological cost of load carriage, and may need to be accounted for in the LCL equation. Algorithms have been developed to detect gait event timing information from the acceleration records and this information has been used to extract certain gait parameters for further analysis.;Accelerometry is an emerging gait analysis technique. In this work, upper body acceleration records were used to detect heel strike and toe-off timing information. An error of less than 4 msec was achieved, and distinction between left and right steps had an accuracy of 98.5%. This is comparable to other published detection schemes; hence upper body accelerometry can be used for gait analysis during load carriage.;For self-paced and fixed-paced walking, alterations in gait parameters caused by increases in load carried included an increase in the percentage of a gait cycle spent in double leg support, and an increase in the maximum knee angle during the absorption phase of the gait cycle. Velocity and stride length decreased with an increase in load carried, although the decrease in stride length was not significant during the self-paced walking trials. Cadence was unaffected by load carried. |
