The coupling model between the upper and lower limbs during bipedal walking

Intelligent prosthetics aim to provide a communication channel between disabled people and external world. Among them, walking-assistive device to help people with lower-limb disability attracts attention but still limited by unnatural gait or lack accurate real-time control. Here we studied the coupling between the upper limbs and the lower limbs since the whole body actually involved during walking and there exists coordination among limbs. We collected motion information of different joints from healthy people during bipedal walking by attitudes sensors. After gait cycle identified and normalized, the relationship between different limbs was built. Based on the polynomial approximation, the knee joint angle can be estimated by the shoulder. Thus in the future it can be potentially applied to control walking-assistive prosthetics by the upper limbs movement instead of the motion information of lower limbs.