Design of a mobile gait monitoring system

In this paper, a mobile gait monitoring system (MGMS) is proposed for the diagnosis of abnormal gait and rehabilitation. The proposed MGMS consists of Smart Shoes and a micro signal processor with a touch screen display. It monitors patients' gait by observing the ground contact forces (GCFs) and the center of GCF (CoGCF). Since visual feedback about patients' gait and normal GCF patterns are provided by the MGMS, patients can practice the rehabilitation treatment by trying to follow the normal GCF patterns without restriction of time and place. Also the GCF data are saved in a micro SD card, and the gait abnormalities (GA) are calculated after the rehabilitation treatment. The effectiveness of the proposed gait analysis methods with the MGMS have been verified by preliminary trials with patients suffering from gait disorders.

[1]  Assurance in Medicare,et al.  The Elderly Population , 1990 .

[2]  M. Tomizuka,et al.  A Gait Monitoring System Based on Air Pressure Sensors Embedded in a Shoe , 2009, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[3]  M.R. Popovic,et al.  A reliable gait phase detection system , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[4]  Yoshiyuki Sankai,et al.  Control method of robot suit HAL working as operator's muscle using biological and dynamical information , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[5]  Toshio Fukuda,et al.  An exoskeletal robot for human shoulder joint motion assist , 2003 .

[6]  Lihua Huang,et al.  On the Control of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX) , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[7]  M. Ishii,et al.  Stand alone wearable power assisting suit - sensing and control systems , 2004, RO-MAN 2004. 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE Catalog No.04TH8759).

[8]  Masayoshi Tomizuka,et al.  Detection of abnormalities in a human gait using smart shoes , 2008, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[9]  Masayoshi Tomizuka,et al.  A mobile gait monitoring system for gait analysis , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics.

[10]  Joseph A. Paradiso,et al.  Gait Analysis Using a Shoe-Integrated Wireless Sensor System , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.