Evaluation of gait parameter estimation accuracy: a comparison between commercial IMU and optical capture motion system

In the elderly, there are several pathologies that can be identified from gait parameters such as frailty, fall risk and cognitive decline. Gait analysis is a successful method for the detection and diagnosis of gait-related diseases, being Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) one of the most widely used (low cost, accuracy and portability). In this work, we analyse the accuracy of gait parameters estimation using a commercial IMU (Physilog 6S from GaitUp) versus the Optitrack System as gold standard. We carry out an in-depth comparison of the gait parameters obtained using the manufacturer software (GaitUp Lab) and our own algorithms based on an inertial navigation with zero velocity update at stance algorithm (INS- ZUPT). Several tests were performed by 2 healthy subjects walking in different ways (normal, high step, dragging the feet and feet drop).