Evaluation of an instrumented insole for the assessment and monitoring of walking performance

Abstract

Analysing the ground reaction force (GRF) is an important component in rehabilitation medicine evaluation. Force platemeasurements remain the gold standard but wearable systems are gaining precision and reproducibility allowing for relevant in-field analysis. The Gait-Teacher custom made by Rehabshop (Belgrade), is an insole with embedded industrial quality pressure sensors and one 3D inertial measurement unit (IMU). Typically, coupling the pressure sensors and IMU may help in assess the GRF. The hypothesis was that from the instrumented insole data we can estimate the horizontal and vertical components of the GRF during the loading and push-off phases of the gait cycle. One healthy subject was walking at self-selected pace and data from the wearable system were validated against reference data obtained from a motion analysis system and a force plate. We found that the insole could estimate correctly the GRF during the loading phase but not during the push-off phase, probably due to the need to further optimize sensor position in the insole.