A Portable Gait Monitoring System for Lower Limb Prosthetic Alignment

Lower limb prosthetic alignment is time consuming and subjective, i.e. dependant to the experience of the prosthetists and feedbacks from the amputees. Alignment settings differ from one prosthetist to another. On the other hand, researchers believe that there is an optimum alignment for each amputee. Proper alignment is vital to provide sufficient gait function and comfort. Instrumental gait analysis is crucial to provide scientific data about the effect of alignment. However, commercial gait monitoring systems are expensive. To assess the effect of alignment, the author demonstrates the design and development of a low-cost gait measurement system to acquire kinematic information using inertial measurement units (IMUs). A heuristic approach to interpret IMU outputs during motion was proposed. Feasibility test of the system showed that critical gait events such as Heel Contact (HC) and Push-Off (PO) could be identified.