Treadmill with Soft Ambulatory Surface to Study the Effects of Surface on Gait in Rehabilitation and in Space

Past researchers have encountered challenges in measuring animals’ gait kinematics and energy expenditure under different gravitation conditions. Previous methods used large amounts of material and did not incorporate controls for gait speed.

The team developed a means to study how ambulating on different surfaces (synthetic regolith to mimic space travel) and weights (the gravitational pulls of Mars, Earth, and the moon) affects a rodent's gait. Understanding these conditions will allow for innovations in space exploration.

The system is made up of five subsystems: rodent treadmill, sand redistribution treadmill (SRT), harness, filter, and user interface. During operation, the SRT will deposit a fresh layer of synthetic regolith and evenly distribute it on the rodent treadmill. The rodent, secured using the harness, will ambulate on the rodent treadmill, and regolith will be filtered and recycled continuously. This system makes it possible to test the effect of rodent ambulation while simulating different gravitational pulls through a harness assembly.