An Optimal Procedure for Stride Length Estimation Using Foot-Mounted Magneto-Inertial Measurement Units

Abstract: Stride length is often used to quantitatively evaluate human locomotion performance. Stride by stride estimation can be conveniently obtained from the signals recorded using miniaturized inertial sensors attached to the feet and appropriate algorithms for data fusion and integration. To reduce the detrimental drift effect, different algorithmic solutions can be implemented. However, the overall method accuracy is supposed to depend on the optimal selection of the parameters which are required to be set. This study aimed at evaluating the influence of the main parameters involved in well-established methods for stride length estimation. An optimization process was conducted to improve methods’ performance and preferable values for the considered parameters according to different walking speed ranges are suggested. A parametric solution is also proposed to target the methods on specific subjects’ gait characteristics. The stride length estimates were obtained from straight walking trials of five healthy volunteers and were compared with those obtained from a stereo-photogrammetric system. After parameters tuning, percentage errors for stride length were 1.9%, 2.5% and 2.6% for comfortable, slow, and fast walking conditions, respectively.This work was supported by the Mobilise-D project that has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 820820. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). Content in this publication reflects the authors' view and neither IMI nor the European Union, EFPIA, or any Associated Partners are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein