2011 International Conference on Instrumentation, Communication, Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering 8-9 November 2011, Bandung, Indonesia

Wearable Gait Measurement System Based on Accelerometer and Pressure Sensor

E. Parikesit, T. L. R. Mengko, H. Zakaria
Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering & Informatics ITB, Bandung, Indonesia (Tel : +62-813-28328-421; E-mail: elang.timoho@gmail.com, tmengko@itb.ac.id, fahala@gmail.com)
Abstract This paper presents the development of wearable instrument that can be used to study the dynamics of human lower limb. Camera-based gait analysis and force plate system are expensive devices. It also requires time-consuming calibration and setup. The wearable system is much cheaper. This system uses gyroscopes and two-axis accelerometers to measure angle of patients leg and ground while the patient walks. Ground reaction forces during human walking are measured using flexible force sensors placed beneath insoles of the shoes. Communication between the wearable system and computer monitor can be performed using the wireless data communication. Keyword: Gait analysis, Wearable System, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Force Resistive Sensor.

I. INTRODUCTION Gait analysis is a systematic study of human walking [1]. It is conducted either through observation or instrumentation for measuring body movement, body mechanics and muscles activities. This analysis is used to assess, plan and give treatment for individual with conditions influencing their ability to walk. It is also frequently used in sport, such as athletics to help the athletes run more efficiently and to identify problem in posture or movement of the patient. Instrumentation on gait analysis is used to trace movement of the patient through analysis based on kinetics or kinematics. Fig. 1 showed different gait cycle phases according to Dr. Perry [3].

The more accurate system for gait analysis comprises a camera-based system and ground plates mounted on the floor. The cameras record the positions of markers placed on a subjects body and these records can later be used to reconstruct the motion or determine desired parameters such as gait phases, angles, gait speed, step length sole acceleration, etc. Force platform records the ground reaction forces and torques about the center of pressure. Force plate/platform is also an expensive system, but this system is very precise. These camera and force plate/platform systems widely used in modern in modern gait laboratories. The gait instrumentation developed in this research is an alternative to commercially available camera and force plate system. The system is based on accelerometer & pressure sensors which are cheaper than the camera-based system. This system also requires no special room so it can be used under regular condition. II. SENSOR SYSTEM The overall system block diagram is shown in Fig. 2. Data from the accelerometers and gyroscopes are received by the microcontroller will be combined using a Kalman filter algorithm which was programmed in it. The output of the microcontroller is an estimated value of the angle and pressure of the foot that will be sent to a PC to be displayed in graphical form.

Fig. 1 Division of the gait cycle phases according to Dr. Perry [3]

Gait analysis systems which are commercially available, generally uses camera (motion capture system). This camerabased system cost a lot of money and need time for its calibration and set-up. It also needs a special room. This camera-based system is precise but impractical for regular use [2].

Fig.2 Block Diagram of Wearable Gait Measurement System

A. Accelerometer and Gyroscope An accelerometer and a gyroscope will be used to measure the angle of patients leg and ground while the patient walks. An accelerometer is a device to measure static and dynamic acceleration. Earth gravity as a static acceleration will be

2011 International Conference on Instrumentation, Communication, Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering 8-9 November 2011, Bandung, Indonesia

detected also by the accelerometer. Therefore, it can detect the orientation of the patients joint and angles. Gyroscope is a device that able to measure rate angle. Output of the gyro needs to be integrated to get angle value. The output being integrated is noisy so that the final result is drifted due to the noise integration along the time process. Because the accelerometer measurement process can be so noisy and the gyro measurement process can give a drifted value, both of their process will be fused by using Kalman Filter algorithm. Accelerometer and gyroscope being used in this experiment is Combo IMU sensor ADXL203 and ADXRS610 from Sparkfun [4]. The detail picture of the combo IMU sensor accelerometer and gyroscope is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig.5. Placement of FSR sensor underneath subjects foot

Fig. 5 showed an op-amp circuit used for the implementation the FSR sensors. The output of the op-amp circuit can be adjusted to provide 0-5V output depending on the force or pressure on the sensor. Output signal from the Op-amps connected to the Arduino analog inputs [6].

Fig. 3 IMU Sensor (Accelerator and gyroscope) module

B. Pressure Sensor Pressure sensors in this system are used to measure the Ground Reaction Force. The system uses FlexiForce, which is a force-sensitive resistor (FSR) sensor. FlexiForce A201 force sensor is a flexible printed circuit and very thin [5] (see Fig. 4).

Fig.6. Resistance to Voltage Converter

III. MICROCONTROLLER A. Hardware Microcontroller being used in this system is Arduino Board with ATMEGA1280 chip (Arduino Mega type). Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR processor and on-board I/O support. The software consists of a standard programming language compiler and the boot loader that runs on the board [7]. Output signal from the accelerometer and gyroscope are connected to the Arduino analog inputs. The Kalman algorithm runs in this microcontroller in 50ms cycle time, it means the estimated angle is updated every 50ms. To investigate the gait, tilt sensor will be placed on the patients leg. By recording the position angle produced by the sensors while the patients walk, the gait information will be acquired. Detailed placement of the systems on the patients body is shown in Figure 8.

Fig.4 Force-Sensitive Resistor (FSR) Sensor

The FlexiForce single element force sensor acts as a force sensing resistor in an electrical circuit. When the force sensor is unloaded, its resistance is very high. When a force is applied to the sensor, this resistance decreases. The FSR sensors used for this experiment have resistance above 1 M when they are not put under pressure. When body weight was exerted on them during walking, the more pressure exerted, the less resistance it exhibits (between 2 k and 10 ). The four sensors were placed beneath insole using nonconductive tape. They were placed underneath heel, medial 1st metatarsal, medial 5th metatarsal, and toe (see Fig. 5).

2011 International Conference on Instrumentation, Communication, Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering 8-9 November 2011, Bandung, Indonesia

Fig.7. Arduino Board

Fig.9. The ongoing cycle of the Kalman filter algorithm

Fig.8. Placement of the whole system B.

Kalman Filter Algorithm The Kalman filter is a set of mathematical equations that provides an efficient computational (recursive) means to estimate the state of a process, in a way that minimizes the mean of the squared error. The filter is very powerful in several aspects: it supports estimations of past, present, and even future states, and it can do so even when the precise nature of the modeled system is unknown [8]. The Kalman filter uses a 2 step predictor-corrector algorithm: 1. The first step involves projecting both the most recent state estimate and an estimate of the error covariance (from the previous time period) forwards in time to compute a predicted (or a-priori) estimate of the states at the current time. 2. Second step involves correcting the predicted state estimate calculated in the first step by incorporating the most recent process measurement to generate an updated (or a-posteriori) state estimate.

Steps on fusion the gyro and accelerometer using Kalman filter are as follow: 1. Define the update rate dt (measure how often the state is updated with gyro rate measurements). 2. Define the measurement covariance noise R 3. Define the process covariance noise Q 4. Define the covariance matrix update a. Pk+1- += Pdot * dt b. Pdot = A*Pk + Pk*A + Q 5. Define the estimated state update a. angle- += g * dt b. g = gyro_measurement gyro_bias 6. Define the Kalman Gain. K = Pk+1 * CT * (C * Pk+1- * CT + R)-1 7. Update the covariance matrix. Pk+1 = (I K* C) * Pk+18. Update the state estimate. X += K * (angle_accel._meas angle) Result of the Kalman Fusion depends on some predefined parameters such as the measurement and process covariance matrices. To get the best estimation of the angle or gait, some experiments with those matrices are conducted. IV. WIRELESS DATA TRANSMISSION Xbee RF module is designed with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard protocol and suitable for simple wireless networks. The principal advantage of using Xbee as a wireless serial communication is because Xbee has lower power consumption (only 3.3 V). This module operates at 2.4 GHz frequency range [10]. Fig. 10 showed the pinout of XBee module.

The Kalman filter goes through this cycle of predicting the state estimate and updating the state estimate with the measurement obtained from the sensors. The ongoing cycle of the algorithm is shown in Fig. 9 [9].

Fig.10. XBee pinout

2011 International Conference on Instrumentation, Communication, Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering 8-9 November 2011, Bandung, Indonesia

Xbee is able to communicate with two different modes of communication which are transparent mode and API mode, depending on what devices are connected with Xbee modules. To create simple point-to-point links (like this system), Xbee works fine in transparent mode without much coding. V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig. 11 showed the output of the gait instrument developed in this study. The output came from left & right FSR and IMU sensors for a sequence of eight gait cycles of a healthy subject. The Force Sensing Resistors (FSRs) in this system is used to measure ground reaction forces. They can also be used for gait phase recognitions [11]. When sensors are positioned correctly, there is no sensor bending or a constant pressure on some point during the whole gait cycle. A phase is considered to be a swing if the sum of signals from FSRs approaches zero, otherwise it is a stance. An important advantage of IMU sensors lies in that they allow determining the sub phases of swing and stance. Fig. 12 showed a good correspondence between gait events detected by FSRs and IMU sensors.

neurological diseases, and fall risk estimation for elderly. The system is light (250 gr), wearable, and inexpensive (under US $500) and comfortable for the patient. VI. CONCLUSIONS A wearable gait measurement system based on accelerometer and pressure sensor is developed successfully. It is portable, wearable and expected not to interfere the natural gait pattern of the subject. It can measures angle of patients leg and ground while the patient walks, and ground reaction forces (plantar pressure) data in an unrestricted environment. The wearable system can be used for studying abnormal versus normal gait. It can also be used to study cadence and plantar pressures measurement of the foot. In addition the system can be interfaced with a portable electro tactile stimulator to provide sensory feedback for the insensate foot [12]. REFERENCES
[1] Whittle, Michael W., Gait Analysis: An Introduction. Elsevier Ltd., 2007 [2] F. Stefanovic and H. Caltenco, A Portable Measurement System for the Evaluation of Human Gait, Journal of Automatic Control, University of Belgrade, Vol. 19:1-6, 2009 [3] History of the Study of Locomotion http://www.clinicalgaitanalysis.com/history/modern.html, last accessed August 11th 2011. [4] IMU Combo Board - 3 Degrees of Freedom - ADXL203/ADXRS610, http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9128 , last accessed August 11th 2011. [5] Flexible Force Sensors, http://www.tekscan.com/flexible-force-sensors, last accessed August 11th 2011. [6] Op Amp, http://www.imagesco.com/sensors/opamp.html, last accessed August 11th 2011. [7] Arduino Homepage, http://arduino.cc/, accessed August 11th 2011. [8] G. Welch and G. Bishop, An Introduction to Kalman Filter , http://www.cs.unc.edu/~welch/media/pdf/kalman_intro.pdf, last accessed August 11th 2011. [9] Sutyasadi, Petrus, Gait Identification using Kalman Fusion of Accelerometer and Gyroscope, 2nd Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand 24-26 November, 2010 [10] XBee / XBee Pro OEM RF Modules, http://ftp1.digi.com/support/documentation/90000982_A.pdf, last accessed August 11th 2011. [11] N. Mijailovic, M. Gavrilovic, and S. Rafajlovic, Gait Phases Recognition from Accelerations and Ground Reaction Forces: Application of Neural Networks, Telfor Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009 [12] J. J. Wertsch, J. Webster, and W.J. Tompkins, A Portable Insole Plantar Pressure Measurement System, Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development Vol. 29 No. 1, 1992, pp. 13-18

Fig. 11 Left FSR signals (top), right FSR signals (middle), and IMU sensor signals (bottom), for a sequence of eight gait cycles of a healthy subject.

Fig. 12 Detailed view of gait events of right foot detected by FSRs and IMU sensor (red color).

The proposed system reveals a promising monitoring tool for gait analysis. It allows measuring gait temporal features (stance, swing, single and double support) during a walking. It also measures foot plantar pressures. There are many potential clinical applications of this system such as measuring an outcome after total knee or hip replacement, prosthesis adjustment for amputees, gait disturbance analysis in