Combined Gait Asymmetry Metric
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2016.7591158
Abstract
People with physical impairments often have asymmetric gait. To evaluate if their overall symmetry is improving during intervention, there needs to be a simple metric that can help classify gait patterns that includes multiple measures of gait asymmetry. The Combined Gait Asymmetry Metric presented here is based on the Mahalanobis distance of multiple step parameters. We tested able-bodied subjects with perturbations that involve a change in leg length, the addition of ankle weights, and a combination of both perturbations. The Mahalanobis distances are calculated from perfect symmetry to all points in the data to analyze the effects of the different perturbations. The metric demonstrates how an overall view of symmetry can give a better perspective of asymmetry than only looking at a few individual parameters. This metric is straightforward and can be extended to include large numbers of spatiotemporal, kinematic, and kinetic parameters that more completely evaluate a change in gait symmetry.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), p. 2165-2168
Scholar Commons Citation
Ramakrishnan, Tyagi; Muratagić, Haris; and Reed, Kyle B., "Combined Gait Asymmetry Metric" (2016). Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications. 89.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/egr_facpub/89
