A novel instrumented outsole for real-time foot kinematics measurement:
validation across different speeds and simulated foot landing in
Cerebral Palsy gait
Abstract
Neuromuscular disorders in Cerebral Palsy (CP) patients lead to foot
deformities and affect foot biomechanics leading to compromised gait.
The objective of the present work is to develop a wearable
instrumentation to measure foot kinematics such as foot-to-ground angle
in three-dimensional planes and to measure the foot clearance i.e., toe
and heel clearances. A template-based outsole was developed that
incorporated an optical distance sensor located anatomically on the
outsole and the magnetometer to measure the foot kinematics. The
developed system was validated against the reference marker-based motion
capture system. The data from eight able-bodied participants were
acquired simultaneously from both the systems at three different walking
speeds. A CoP based feedback was presented to the participants to shift
the sagittal CoP anteriorly, posteriorly and normal to simulate the
walking pattern of CP patients with three different foot landing
strategies. Pearson’s correlation coefficient of more than or equal to
0.62, root mean square error of less than or equal to 7.81 degrees and
limit of agreement of more than or equal to 95% is found. The
measurement accuracy reported with outsole while participants simulated
CP gait shows the potential of present work in real-time foot kinematics
detection in CP patients.