Walking analysis of young-elderly people by using an intelligent walker ANG

This paper proposed a new method to analyze the human walking by using a 3-wheels rollator walker instrumented with encoders and a 3D accelerometer/gyrometer. In order to develop the walking quality index and monitor the health state of elderly people at home, the walking of 23 young adults and 25 elderly people (> 69 years) with the help of the walker, are compared. Besides of the comparison on walking ability which is described by gait parameters in the classical method, the walker can also offer the comparisons on the walking accuracy and stability. The results show that many general walking indicators such as walking speed, stride length have no obvious difference between two groups, but some indicators developed by using the walker are very discriminating, e.g., the lateral motion of elderly people is bigger, their walking accuracy is less, but their effort distributed on the handles are more symmetry.