Estimation of Hike Events and Temporal Parameters with Body-Attached Sensors

The analysis of human gait is of fundamental importance for the monitoring and enhancement of athletes’ performances. The kinematics and kinetics of human gait are mostly investigated with optical motion capture systems and force plates that require specialised laboratories and limit the possible test conditions. On the contrary, body-attached sensor networks provide an opportunity for long-term acquisitions in unsupervised, naturalistic scenarios. In this study, a wearable sensor network consisting of two wireless dataloggers and two instrumented insoles with eight pressure sensors each is used. Custom algorithms for the automatic detection of hike events and the estimation of the related temporal parameters based on sensors data are presented. The proposed algorithms were tested against laboratory measurements performed on an instrumented treadmill and showed relative errors of less than 2.5% in the estimation of stride time, step time and cadence. Higher relative errors were found in the estimation of stance and swing phases. The developed algorithms were also applied in a field study. In this paper data from one subject are considered. The aim of this research work is to provide an effective sensor-based methodology for the evaluation of gait parameters in naturalistic settings.