Measuring highly accurate foot position and angle trajectories with foot-mounted IMUs in clinical practice.
Digital health
Foot motion estimation
Foot-mounted
Gait assessment
Inertial sensor
Wearable sensor systems
Journal
Gait & posture
ISSN: 1879-2219
Titre abrégé: Gait Posture
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9416830
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
04 Nov 2023
04 Nov 2023
Historique:
received:
30
03
2023
revised:
19
10
2023
accepted:
01
11
2023
medline:
22
11
2023
pubmed:
22
11
2023
entrez:
21
11
2023
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Gait analysis using foot-mounted IMUs is a promising method to acquire gait parameters outside of laboratory settings and in everyday clinical practice. However, the need for precise sensor attachment or calibration, the requirement of environments with a homogeneous magnetic field, and the limited applicability to pathological gait patterns still pose challenges. Furthermore, in previously published work, the measurement accuracy of such systems is often only validated for specific points in time or in a single plane. This study investigates the measurement accuracy of a gait analysis method based on foot-mounted IMUs in the acquisition of the foot motion, i.e., position and angle trajectories of the foot in the sagittal, frontal, and transversal plane over the entire gait cycle. A comparison of the proposed method with an optical motion capture system showed an average RMSE of 0.67° for pitch, 0.63° for roll and 1.17° for yaw. For position trajectories, an average RMSE of 0.51 cm for vertical lift and 0.34 cm for lateral shift was found. The measurement error of the IMU-based method is found to be much smaller than the deviations caused by the shoes. The proposed method is found to be sufficiently accurate for clinical practice. It does not require precise mounting, special calibration movements, or magnetometer data, and shows no difference in measurement accuracy between normal and pathological gait. Therefore, it provides an easy-to-use alternative to optical motion capture and facilitates gait analysis independent of laboratory settings.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Gait analysis using foot-mounted IMUs is a promising method to acquire gait parameters outside of laboratory settings and in everyday clinical practice. However, the need for precise sensor attachment or calibration, the requirement of environments with a homogeneous magnetic field, and the limited applicability to pathological gait patterns still pose challenges. Furthermore, in previously published work, the measurement accuracy of such systems is often only validated for specific points in time or in a single plane.
RESEARCH QUESTION
OBJECTIVE
This study investigates the measurement accuracy of a gait analysis method based on foot-mounted IMUs in the acquisition of the foot motion, i.e., position and angle trajectories of the foot in the sagittal, frontal, and transversal plane over the entire gait cycle.
RESULTS
RESULTS
A comparison of the proposed method with an optical motion capture system showed an average RMSE of 0.67° for pitch, 0.63° for roll and 1.17° for yaw. For position trajectories, an average RMSE of 0.51 cm for vertical lift and 0.34 cm for lateral shift was found. The measurement error of the IMU-based method is found to be much smaller than the deviations caused by the shoes.
SIGNIFICANCE
CONCLUSIONS
The proposed method is found to be sufficiently accurate for clinical practice. It does not require precise mounting, special calibration movements, or magnetometer data, and shows no difference in measurement accuracy between normal and pathological gait. Therefore, it provides an easy-to-use alternative to optical motion capture and facilitates gait analysis independent of laboratory settings.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37988888
pii: S0966-6362(23)01482-0
doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2023.11.002
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
63-69Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: A.J. Jocham was employed by Tyromotion GmbH (Graz, Austria) prior to data collection for this work. Other authors declare no conflict of interest.