Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon
Abstract Shoes are generally designed protect the feet against repetitive collisions with the ground, often using thick viscoelastic midsoles to add in-series compliance under the human. Recent footwear design developments have shown that this approach may also produce metabolic energy savings. Here...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2021-11-01
|
| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02059-8 |
| _version_ | 1818857996724207616 |
|---|---|
| author | Ryan C. Riddick Dominic J. Farris Nicholas A. T. Brown Luke A. Kelly |
| author_facet | Ryan C. Riddick Dominic J. Farris Nicholas A. T. Brown Luke A. Kelly |
| author_sort | Ryan C. Riddick |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Shoes are generally designed protect the feet against repetitive collisions with the ground, often using thick viscoelastic midsoles to add in-series compliance under the human. Recent footwear design developments have shown that this approach may also produce metabolic energy savings. Here we test an alternative approach to modify the foot–ground interface by adding additional stiffness in parallel to the plantar aponeurosis, targeting the windlass mechanism. Stiffening the windlass mechanism by about 9% led to decreases in peak activation of the ankle plantarflexors soleus (~ 5%, p < 0.001) and medial gastrocnemius (~ 4%, p < 0.001), as well as a ~ 6% decrease in positive ankle work (p < 0.001) during fixed-frequency bilateral hopping (2.33 Hz). These results suggest that stiffening the foot may reduce cost in dynamic tasks primarily by reducing the effort required to plantarflex the ankle, since peak activation of the intrinsic foot muscle abductor hallucis was unchanged (p = 0.31). Because the novel exotendon design does not operate via the compression or bending of a bulky midsole, the device is light (55 g) and its profile is low enough that it can be worn within an existing shoe. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T08:49:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-27f54178343649e9ac1145ff4aaef564 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T08:49:16Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-27f54178343649e9ac1145ff4aaef5642022-12-21T20:28:46ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222021-11-0111111210.1038/s41598-021-02059-8Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendonRyan C. Riddick0Dominic J. Farris1Nicholas A. T. Brown2Luke A. Kelly3Centre for Sensorimotor Performance, University of QueenslandSport and Health Sciences, University of ExeterFaculty of Health, University of CanberraCentre for Sensorimotor Performance, University of QueenslandAbstract Shoes are generally designed protect the feet against repetitive collisions with the ground, often using thick viscoelastic midsoles to add in-series compliance under the human. Recent footwear design developments have shown that this approach may also produce metabolic energy savings. Here we test an alternative approach to modify the foot–ground interface by adding additional stiffness in parallel to the plantar aponeurosis, targeting the windlass mechanism. Stiffening the windlass mechanism by about 9% led to decreases in peak activation of the ankle plantarflexors soleus (~ 5%, p < 0.001) and medial gastrocnemius (~ 4%, p < 0.001), as well as a ~ 6% decrease in positive ankle work (p < 0.001) during fixed-frequency bilateral hopping (2.33 Hz). These results suggest that stiffening the foot may reduce cost in dynamic tasks primarily by reducing the effort required to plantarflex the ankle, since peak activation of the intrinsic foot muscle abductor hallucis was unchanged (p = 0.31). Because the novel exotendon design does not operate via the compression or bending of a bulky midsole, the device is light (55 g) and its profile is low enough that it can be worn within an existing shoe.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02059-8 |
| spellingShingle | Ryan C. Riddick Dominic J. Farris Nicholas A. T. Brown Luke A. Kelly Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon Scientific Reports |
| title | Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon |
| title_full | Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon |
| title_fullStr | Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon |
| title_short | Stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon |
| title_sort | stiffening the human foot with a biomimetic exotendon |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02059-8 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ryancriddick stiffeningthehumanfootwithabiomimeticexotendon AT dominicjfarris stiffeningthehumanfootwithabiomimeticexotendon AT nicholasatbrown stiffeningthehumanfootwithabiomimeticexotendon AT lukeakelly stiffeningthehumanfootwithabiomimeticexotendon |