Load Carriage affects Kinematics during Ingress and Egress on Simulated Travelators

Abstract

Technology advancements has impacted the quality of life in the modern world. Nowadays travelators found popularly as conveyers in airports have been widely used but it is not known how load carriage affects Ingress/egress on travelators. Ten healthy young adults stepped off a metal platform onto a forward moving treadmill belt at a given speed and then stepped on to a second platform. Data was collected to understand how load carriage could influence ingress and egress in participants. Participants were tested for four conditions (load, No load, speed of 0.3 m/s and 0.6 m/s). Load carriage at speed 0.6 m/s were found to have significantly higher knee flexion angles. Ankle angles measured for ingress presented different trends amongst the four conditions. Load carriage at speed 0.6 m/s showed greater plantarflexion compared to the other three conditions. Our future work will assess effects of load carriage on travelators among older adults.