Characterisation of rollator use using inertial sensors

Healthcare Technology Letters

article

Tsu-Jui Cheng¹  Laurence Kenney¹  James David Amor²  Sibylle Brunhilde Thies¹  Eleonora Costamagna¹  Christopher James²  Catherine Holloway³ 

[1] Centre for Health Sciences Research, University of Salford;Warwick Engineering in Biomedicine, School of Engineering, University of Warwick;Department of Computer Science, University College London

关键词: rollers (machinery);    inertial navigation;    handicapped aids;    geriatrics;    medical disorders;    biomedical measurement;    rollator use;    inertial sensors;    walking aids;    mobility impairment;    outdoor mobility;    curbs;    slopes;    urban environment;    rollator movement;    inertial measurement unit;    push events;    motion capture system;    multiple sclerosis;    IMU-derived metrics;    outdoor environment;   

DOI  :  10.1049/htl.2016.0061

学科分类：肠胃与肝脏病学

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

The use of walking aids is prevalent among older people and people with mobility impairment. Rollators are designed to support outdoor mobility and require the user to negotiate curbs and slopes in the urban environment. Despite the prevalence of rollators, analysis of their use outside of controlled environments has received relatively little attention. This Letter reports on an initial study to characterise rollator movement. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) was used to measure the motion of the rollator and analytical approaches were developed to extract features characterising the rollator movement, properties of the surface and push events. The analytics were tested in two situations: first, a healthy participant used a rollator in a laboratory using a motion capture system to obtain ground truth. Second, the IMU was used to measure the movement of a rollator being used by a user with multiple sclerosis on a flat surface, cross-slope, up and down slopes and up and down a step. The results showed that surface inclination and distance travelled measured by the IMU have close approximation to the results from ground truth; therefore, demonstrating the potential for IMU-derived metrics to characterise rollator movement and user's pushing style in the outdoor environment.

【 授权许可】

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