Accelerometer and rate gyroscope measurement of kinematics: an inexpensive alternative to optical motion analysis systems

R.E. Mayagoitia, Ruth E. Mayagoitia, A.V. Nene, Petrus H. Veltink

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    Abstract

    A general-purpose system to obtain the kinematics of gait in the sagittal plane based on body-mounted sensors was developed. It consisted of four uniaxial seismic accelerometers and one rate gyroscope per body segment. Tests were done with 10 young healthy volunteers, walking at five different speeds on a treadmill. In order to study the system's accuracy, measurements were made with an optic, passive-marker system and the body-mounted system, simultaneously. In all the comparison cases, the curves obtained from the two systems were very close, showing root mean square errors representing <7% full range in 75% of the cases (overall mean 6.64%, standard deviation 4.13%) and high coefficients of multiple correlation in 100% of cases (overall mean 0.9812, standard deviation 0.02). Calibration of the body-mounted system is done against gravity. The body-mounted sensors do not hinder natural movement. The calculation algorithms are computationally demanding and only are applicable off-line. The body-mounted sensors are accurate, inexpensive and portable and allow long-term recordings in clinical, sport and ergonomics settings
    Original languageUndefined
    Pages (from-to)537-542
    Number of pages6
    JournalJournal of biomechanics
    Volume35
    Issue number35
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2002

    Keywords

    • Gyroscope
    • METIS-206106
    • Portable gait analysis
    • Knee moment
    • IR-61436
    • Gait kinematics
    • Accelerometer

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