Determining the Most Appropriate Assistive Walking Device Using the Inertial Measurement Unit-Based Gait Analysis System in Disabled Patients

There is a lack of commercially available low-cost technologies to assess gait clinically in non-controlled environments. As a consequence of this, there has been poor massification of motion measurement technologies that are both objective and reliable in nature. Advances about the study of gait and its interpretation in recent years using inertial sensors have allowed proposing acceptable alternatives for the development of portable and low-cost systems that contribute to people’s health in places and institutions that cannot acquire or maintain the operation of commercially available systems. A system based on a custom single Inertial Measurement Unit and a mobile application is proposed. Thus, an investigation is carried out using methodologies and algorithms found in the literature in order to get the main gait events and the spatial-temporal gait parameters. Twenty healthy Chilean subjects were assessed using a motion capture system simultaneously with the proposed tool. The results show that it is possible to estimate temporal gait parameters with slight differences respect gold--standard. We reach maximum mean differences of -2.35±5.02[step/min] for cadence, 0.03±0.04[sec] for stride time,0.02±0.03[sec] for step time, ±0.02[sec] for a single support time, 0.01±0.02[sec] for double support time and 0.01±0.03[m] for step length. As a result of experimental findings, we propose a new technological tool that can perform gait analysis. Our proposed system is user-friendly, low-cost, and portable. Therefore, we suggest that it could be an attractive technological tool that healthcare professionals could harness to objectively measure gait in environments that are either within the community or controlled. We also suggest that the tool could be used in countries where advanced clinical tools cannot be acquired. Therefore, we propose in this paper that our system is an attractive, alternative system that can be used for gait analysis by health professionals worldwide.

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Validation of the angular measurements of a new inertial-measurement-unit based rehabilitation system: comparison with state-of-the-art gait analysis

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation ◽

10.1186/1743-0003-11-136 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 136 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Alberto Leardini ◽

Giada Lullini ◽

Sandro Giannini ◽

Lisa Berti ◽

Maurizio Ortolani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gait Analysis ◽

Inertial Measurement Unit ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Measurement Unit ◽

Inertial Measurement ◽

Rehabilitation System ◽

Angular Measurements

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Validation of a portable system for spatial-temporal gait parameters based on a single inertial measurement unit and a mobile application

European Journal of Translational Myology ◽

10.4081/ejtm.2020.9002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 268-276

Author(s):

Pablo Aqueveque ◽

Britam Arom Gómez ◽

Francisco Saavedra ◽

Cristian Canales ◽

Simón Contreras ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gait Analysis ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Inertial Measurement Unit ◽

Low Cost ◽

Measurement Unit ◽

Attractive Alternative ◽

Inertial Measurement ◽

Gait Parameters ◽

Technological Tool ◽

Support Time

There is a lack of commercially available low-cost technologies to assess gait clinically in non-controlled environments. As a consequence of this, there has been poor massification of motion measurement technologies that are both objective and reliable in nature. Advances about the study of gait and its interpretation in recent years using inertial sensors have allowed proposing acceptable alternatives for the development of portable and low-cost systems that contribute to people’s health in places and institutions that cannot acquire or maintain the operation of commercially available systems. A system based on a custom single Inertial Measurement Unit and a mobile application is proposed. Thus, an investigation is carried out using methodologies and algorithms found in the literature in order to get the main gait events and the spatial-temporal gait parameters. Twenty healthy Chilean subjects were assessed using a motion capture system simultaneously with the proposed tool. The results show that it is possible to estimate temporal gait parameters with slight differences respect gold--standard. We reach maximum mean differences of -2.35±5.02[step/min] for cadence, 0.03±0.04[sec] for stride time,0.02±0.03[sec] for step time, ±0.02[sec] for a single support time, 0.01±0.02[sec] for double support time and 0.01±0.03[m] for step length. As a result of experimental findings, we propose a new technological tool that can perform gait analysis. Our proposed system is user-friendly, low-cost, and portable. Therefore, we suggest that it could be an attractive technological tool that healthcare professionals could harness to objectively measure gait in environments that are either within the community or controlled. We also suggest that the tool could be used in countries where advanced clinical tools cannot be acquired. Therefore, we propose in this paper that our system is an attractive, alternative system that can be used for gait analysis by health professionals worldwide.

Download Full-text