Base of Support, Step Length and Stride Width Estimation During Walking Using an Inertial and Infrared Wearable System

Overview

Journal Sensors (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biotechnology

Date 2023 Apr 28

PMID 37112261

Authors

Rachele Rossanigo

Marco Caruso

Stefano Bertuletti

Franca Deriu

Marco Knaflitz

Ugo Della Croce

Andrea Cereatti

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The analysis of the stability of human gait may be effectively performed when estimates of the base of support are available. The base of support area is defined by the relative position of the feet when they are in contact with the ground and it is closely related to additional parameters such as step length and stride width. These parameters may be determined in the laboratory using either a stereophotogrammetric system or an instrumented mat. Unfortunately, their estimation in the real world is still an unaccomplished goal. This study aims at proposing a novel, compact wearable system, including a magneto-inertial measurement unit and two time-of-flight proximity sensors, suitable for the estimation of the base of support parameters. The wearable system was tested and validated on thirteen healthy adults walking at three self-selected speeds (slow, comfortable, and fast). Results were compared with the concurrent stereophotogrammetric data, used as the gold standard. The root mean square errors for the step length, stride width and base of support area varied from slow to high speed between 10-46 mm, 14-18 mm, and 39-52 cm, respectively. The mean overlap of the base of support area as obtained with the wearable system and with the stereophotogrammetric system ranged between 70% and 89%. Thus, this study suggested that the proposed wearable solution is a valid tool for the estimation of the base of support parameters out of the laboratory.

Citing Articles

A multi-sensor wearable system for the assessment of diseased gait in real-world conditions.

Salis F, Bertuletti S, Bonci T, Caruso M, Scott K, Alcock L Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023; 11:1143248.

PMID: 37214281 PMC: 10194657. DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1143248.

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