Roll-over shapes of the human foot/ankle complex

Roll-over shapes of the human foot/ankle complex are shown for three subjects walking at five different self-selected walking speeds (very slow, slow, normal, fast, very fast). The results indicate that the rollover shape of the foot does not change dramatically from heel contact to opposite heel contact at these different speeds and that the foot/ankle complex could be approximated using a passive structure during this period of the gait cycle. Both of these aspects seem promising for the future development of prosthetic feet. A prosthetic foot that deforms to a proper roll-over shape may perform similarly to the human foot/ankle complex for any walking speed. The findings of this work may also be useful in other areas of prosthetics and orthotics research and rehabilitation.