Characterisation of rollator use using inertial sensors

Cheng, TJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2775-6396, Kenney, LPJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2164-3892, Amor, JD, Thies, SBA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9889-2243, Costamagna, E, James, CJ and Holloway, C 2016, 'Characterisation of rollator use using inertial sensors' , Healthcare Technology Letters, 3 (4) .

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Abstract

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 paper 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, firstly a healthy participant used a rollator in a laboratory using a motion capture system to obtain ground truth. Secondly the IMU was used to measure the movement of a rollator being used by a user with multiple sclerosis (MS) 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.

Item Type:	Article
Schools:	Schools > School of Health and Society > Centre for Health Sciences Research
Journal or Publication Title:	Healthcare Technology Letters
Publisher:	The Institution of Engineering and Technology
ISSN:	2053-3713
Related URLs:	Publication
Funders:	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Depositing User:	TJ Cheng
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2016 07:51
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2019 15:00
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/40151

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