A simple mechanical model to estimate the metabolic cost of human walking

We propose that the metabolic cost of walking can be estimated from a simple mechanical model composed of centre of mass velocity redirection, body weight support, torso and swing dynamics, and foot-to-ground clearance. From human biomechanical walking data provided by the ISB 2019 metabolic cost modelling session, we estimated the gross metabolic cost of transport to be 2.988 J/kg/m. The model only required parameters calculable from kinematic data.