FallsLab

FallsLab’s state-of-the-art platform and gantry helps researchers assess how people stop themselves from falling after they lose their balance, and how different conditions affect control of balance and gait. FallsLab helps researchers study how the control and mechanics of balance and gait change with age or disease. FallsLab is a large moving platform that allows versatile applications. For example, a participant can walk across the platform, and the researcher can initiate sudden movements of the platform at a specific moment in the gait cycle to cause a slip or trip, while precisely measuring the reaction to the destabilizing motion. An overhead safety harness tracks the position of the participant and prevents falls to the ground.

Equipment Highlights

FallsLab is a 2-degree-of-freedom motion platform used to study stability and balance control during gait and stance. The 6x3m moving platform can accommodate up to 8 large force plates and is surrounded by motion capture and high speed video recording systems. The platform surface can be moved horizontally in any pattern comprised of combinations of different X and Y motions. The platform is capable of high accelerations and velocities, up to 10m/s2 and 2m/s respectively, with total displacements of over 2m in both directions in the horizontal plane. Extensions can be added to the platform, increasing its size to 7x3m. The platform movements can be programmed to be random or can be triggered by an event. By accelerating quickly in an unexpected direction, at an unexpected time, FallsLab can create “balance perturbations” that simulate a slip, trip or stumble. An instrumented safety harness gantry prevents the occupant from truly falling should a loss of balance occur. This specialized equipment allows balance disturbances to be applied in a well-controlled and safe manner to give insight into the development and maintenance of reactive balance reactions. The lab is equipped with a 3D motion capture system. The lab floor has a standard pattern of threaded holes that allows structures to be secured to the platform to represent environmental features, such as handrails, obstacles, and trip hazards.

Quick Facts

1. According to the most recent Canadian data, 4 out of 5 injury hospitalizations involving seniors were due to falls.
2. Best practices to avoid falls include doing regular balance and strength exercises, having non-slip surfaces in the tub and shower, and asking for help with tasks that can’t be done safely alone.
3. Just over one-third of Canadians, aged 65 and older (34%), reported being concerned about a future fall. About a third of those who perceived a risk of falling had fallen within the past year.
4. In 2017–2018, 51% of all injury-related hospitalizations in Canada were for seniors age 65 and older.

Recent Publications

• Huntley, A., Schinkel-Ivy, A., Mansfield, A. (2024). The effect of reactive balance training on responses to novel unexpected balance perturbations: a feasibility study. medRxviv. 2024.02, 11.24302069.
• Boroomand-Tehrani, A., Huntley, A., Jagroop, D., Campos, J., Patterson, K.K., Tremblay, L., Mansfield, A. (2020). The effects of postural threat induced by a virtual environment on performance of a walking balance task. Human Movement Science. 74:102712.
• Mansfield, A., Inness, E.L., Danells, C.J., Jagroop, D., Bhatt, T., Huntley, A.H. (2020). Determining the optimal dose of reactive balance training after stroke – study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2020;10:e038073
• Rozanski, G.M., Huntley, A.H., Crosby, L.D., Schinkel-Ivy, A., Mansfield, A., Patterson, K.K. (2020). Lower limb muscle activity underlying temporal gait asymmetry post-stroke. Clinical Neurophysiology. 131(8):1848-1858
• Gill, L., Huntley, A.H., Mansfield, A. (2019). Does the margin of stability measure predict medio-lateral stability of gait with a constrained-width base of support? Journal of Biomechanics. 95:109317
• Schinkel-Ivy, A., Huntley, A., Aqui, A., Mansfield, A. (2019). Does perturbation-based balance training improve control of reactive stepping in individuals with chronic stroke? A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. 28(4):935-943
• Huntley, A.H., Rajachandrakumar, R., Schinkel-Ivy, A., Mansfield, A. (2019). Characterizing slips during gait using an entire support surface perturbation: comparisons to previously established slip methods. Gait and Posture. 69:130-135

Media Links

• KITE: Welcome to FallsLab - YouTube
• UHN Foundation: KITE’s FallsLab is finding new ways to prevent falls
• Toronto Star: Why are these scientists teaching seniors how to fall? I took the plunge to find out
• The Washington Post: Why perturbation-based balance exercises like ‘the airplane’ benefit so many people
• CBC White Coat, Black Art: 6 overlooked risk of falls for seniors and how to prevent them
• CBC Marketplace: What to do, and what not to do, when earthquake hits
• CBC: The surprising health benefits of walking backwards