Assistive Force Redirection of Crutch Gait Produced by the Kinetic Crutch Tip
This paper investigates how crutch tip designs affect the user’s gait. Five Kinetic Crutch Tips (KCT), each with different durometers (i.e., stiffnesses) along with one carbon fiber reinforced nylon 3D printed KCT and one Standard Rubber Tip were tested. The first experiment examined eight healthy subjects to determine the assistive horizontal force generated and crutch angle range. The second experiment eliminates the human factor and uses a weighted crutch in free fall to investigate transitional angles between forward and backward motions. It was found that the KCT had a larger transitional angle than the Standard Rubber Tip. This increases the assistive forward forces of the crutch due to the surface kinetic shape of KCTs; however, the total angle of different crutch tips remains the same when used by the subjects. The assistive forces were present for the longest amount of time for the highest durometer KCT.