A Review on Accelerometry-Based Gait Analysis and Emerging Clinical Applications

Abstract

Gait analysis continues to be an important technique for many clinical applications to diagnose and monitor certain diseases. Many mental and physical abnormalities cause measurable differences in a person's gait. Gait analysis has applications in sport, computer games, physical rehabilitation, clinical assessment, surveillance, human recognition, modeling, and many other fields. There are established methods using various sensors for gait analysis, of which accelerometers are one of the most often employed. Accelerometer sensors are generally more user friendly and less invasive. In this paper, we review research regarding accelerometer sensors used for gait analysis with particular focus on clinical applications. We provide a brief introduction to accelerometer theory followed by other popular sensing technologies. Commonly used gait phases and parameters are enumerated. The details of selecting the papers for review are provided. We also review several gait analysis software. Then we provide an extensive report of accelerometry-based gait analysis systems and applications, with additional emphasis on trunk accelerometry. We conclude this review with future research directions.

Estimation of Gait Mechanics Based on Simulated and Measured IMU Data Using an Artificial Neural Network

“…In all cases, long term or frequent monitoring of a person during daily life is desirable, thus allowing to identify any progression of a disease. To bring motion analysis into daily life, wearable sensors-especially inertial measurement units (IMUs)-have become increasingly popular (Caldas et al, 2017;Jarchi et al, 2018).…”

Comparison of gait characteristics between clinical and daily life settings in children with cerebral palsy

“…In the context of CGA, spatiotemporal, kinematic, kinetic parameters, among others, are commonly assessed. Motion sensors such as Inertial measurement units (IMU) can quantify several of these gait parameters with a good level of accuracy in pathological populations [35][36][37] . In children with CP, few sensor configurations have been tested.…”

Wearable Sensor-Based Gait Analysis for Age and Gender Estimation

“…Gaits are important to know any developmental progress during some diseases or after some surgeries. Some important health and medical-related terminologies that can be addressed by gait characteristics are patients with cerebral palsy, cerebellar ataxia, knee arthroplasty, hip arthroplasty, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, idiopathic arthritis, idiopathic Parkinson's disease, atypical Parkinson's disease, bipolar disorder, dementia, Pick's disease, idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, ankle osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease, postural instability, and gait difficulty, and to improve the life-quality of patients and elderly people who are suffering due to gait-related or walking pattern-related problems [13,21,22].…”

“…Smartphone sensors, force plates, electromyography (EMG), goniometer, sensing fabric, floor sensors, foot pressure insoles, etc. are also explored for these studies [13,42,43]. In most of the cases, tri-axial accelerometers are employed.…”

“…Inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors are extensively explored in various research works and systems. Several survey works are done by [13,14], where the authors highlighted the accelerometer-based human gait analysis and various clinical applications to monitor as well as diagnose several diseases.…”