Development of Analysis and Test Platform for Step Friction

Analysis and test platform which can be used to detect step friction characteristic of human while walking on static or dynamic road was developed. This platform consisted of six-degree-of-freedom motion electromechanical platform, three dimensional force plate, motion control and data acquisition system, and safety protection device. Six-degree-of-freedom motion electromechanical platform can provide random combination of motions with one to six-degree-of-freedom to simulate the motion of ship, sea wave or earthquake and so on. Three-dimensional force plate can detect the force and moment in lateral, front-to-rear and normal directions of human while walking. Motion control and data acquisition system can make the motion platform move in setting form previously and save the data outputted by motion platform and force plate in terminal computer in order to analyze the step friction characteristic of human in movement. Safeguard device can prevent subject from falling if walking on kinetic road. A group of experiment of human walking was conducted by the developed analysis and test platform and the result showed that distribution regularities of normal ground reaction force (GRF) of human walking on ramp both ascending and descending were different from walking on level road. Furthermore, GRF of human walking on ramp both ascending and descending decreased with the increase of inclination angle of slope.