<title>Investigation of human locomotion using Penny &amp; Giles electrogoniometer</title>

Abstract

This paper deals with the experimental measurements, data filtering and theoretical representation of the angular position of a human leg in 3-D space during normal and pathological walking. The angular position of a human leg during walking in sagittal plane was measured by a new electrogoniometer made by a UK company named Penny & Giles. This system is a spatial mechanism made of a group oflinks which are coupled by proper angular sensor. This instrument enables an indirect evaluation of the angular position of a human leg in the 3-D space from knowledge ofthe system geometry and from the angular value readings. This instrument is light, small-sized technologically new and is easy to use. However, its dynamics features have not been analyzed in the literature.Therefore we decided to analyze the instrument in order to built a DWT (iscrete avelets Iransform) filter for filtering data recorded by a electrogoniometer Penny & Giles. We built filter corresponding to Daubechies wavelets, DAUB # 20. The DWT filter is sufficient for filtering high frequency noise which exists during experimental measurement ofthe angular position ofa human leg during normal and pathological gait.Filtering using Daubechies wavelets -DAUB # 20 is more efficient than commercial numerical filtering delivered by Penny & Giles company.

Gait Analysis Using Wearable Sensors

“…A number of flexible electrogoniometers based on a strain gauge have been developed and used for angle measurement in gait analysis since the 1980s [ 45 , 46 ]. At present, numerous commercialized flexible electrogoniometers are available for the measurement of human posture and spinal motion [ 47 – 49 ]. A mechanical flexible goniometer is designed to obtain angular change by measuring the longitudinal displacement of two parallel wires bent in the plane of rotation, which is demonstrated by measuring the knee joint during human walking [ 50 ].…”

Identification of Steady and Non-Steady Gait of Humanexoskeleton Walking System

“…At present only electrogoniometers allow examination of multistep locomotion in both: laboratory and field conditions (Jaworek and Ferenc, 1992;Jaworek et al, 1998). Previous research into the use of electrogoniometers was also focused on relatively constant velocity and constant frequency of human gait.…”