Centroidal Moment Pivot for ambulatory estimation of relative feet and CoM movement post stroke: Portable Gait Lab

Measuring gait and balance recovery is necessary post stroke. In an earlier study, we developed a minimal three Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) system called Portable Gait Lab (PGL). The PGL used the Centroidal Moment Pivot (CMP) assumption to estimate relative foot and centre of mass (CoM) positions, and thereby estimate gait parameters in healthy participants. In this study, we validate the feasibility of the PGL to track foot and CoM trajectory during gait in four persons with chronic stroke. Spatiotemporal gait and balance measures were estimated from the foot and CoM trajectories, and compared with the reference ForceShoes™. Each participant made at least 20 steps, and the PGL was able to track foot and CoM trajectories with a root mean square of the differences with the reference of 2.9 ± 0.2 cm and 4.6 ± 3.6 cm. The distances between either foot at the end of the walking task, and step lengths were estimated by PGL with an average error with the reference of 1.98 ± 2.2 cm and 7.8 ± 0.1 cm respectively across participants. We show that our approach was able to estimate spatiotemporal and balance parameters related to gait quality in a clinically useful manner. We recommend conducting further studies to study the feasibility of using the PGL system for variable gait patterns measured post stroke.