A study on performance verification of gait parameter estimation using wearable force plates

Abstract

This paper deals with the performance validation of the gait analysis method by using the wearable force plates. The wearable force plates can obtain 3-axis force, 3-axis moment, 3-axis angular velocity, 3-axis acceleration, and 3-axis magnetic field. The analysis method consists of the posture estimation of the wearable force plates and the estimation of gait velocity using Extended Kalman filter. The posture estimation can obtain Roll and Pitch angles. The position information can be calculated by the time integration of gait velocity. We conducted the measurement experiment of gait by installing the wearable force plates for performance validation. The analytical results indicated gait velocity and position reflecting the difference of stride length. Therefore, the analysis method can be used to estimate the gait parameter.