Abstract
Conference Title: 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) Conference Start Date: 2014, Aug. 26 Conference End Date: 2014, Aug. 30 Conference Location: Chicago, IL, USA This paper describes a preliminary study of using four inertial measurement units (IMUs) attached to the heel and pelvis to estimate the joint angles of normal subjects during walking. The IMU, consisting of a 3-D accelerometer and gyroscope, is used to estimate the planar displacement of the heel and pelvis and the angular change of heel in one gait cycle. We then model the gait as a planar 3R serial chain and solve its inverse kinematics by using such information. The results are validated by comparing the estimated joint angles of lower limbs (i.e. hip, knee and ankle angles) with an optical motion capture system. This study can benefit the future research on conducting complete lower limbs kinematics analysis with minimal and unobtrusive wearable sensors.