An evaluation of measurement systems estimating gait speed during a loaded military march over graded terrain

Veenstra, Bertil J.; Wyss, Thomas; Roos, Lilian; Delves, Simon K.; Buller, Mark J.; Beeler, Nadja (2018). An evaluation of measurement systems estimating gait speed during a loaded military march over graded terrain Gait & Posture, 61, pp. 204-209. Elsevier 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.01.011

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This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of three measurement systems estimating gait speed during a loaded military march over graded terrain. Systems developed by the Swiss and Netherlands Armed Forces and a commercial wrist-based device were evaluated in comparison to a Global Positioning System. The first part of the paper focuses on the development of the Dutch system, where speed is estimated from a chest worn accelerometer and body measurements. For this validation study 36 subjects were walking or running 13 laps of 200m at different speeds. Results showed that walking and running speed can be estimated with a R2adj of 0.968 and 0.740, respectively. In the second part of this paper, data from 64 soldiers performing a 35 km march were used to evaluate the accuracy of three measurement systems in estimating speed. Data showed that estimating gait speed with a single accelerometer can be accurate for military activity, even without prior individual calibration measurements. However, predictions should be corrected for confounders such as body size and shoe type to be accurate. Both, downhill and uphill walking led to changes in gait characteristics and to an overestimation of speed by up to 10%. Correcting for slope or gradient using altimetry in future algorithms/experiments could improve the estimation of gait speed.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Swiss Federal Institute of Sports Magglingen SFISM > EHSM - Lehre und Sportpädagogik > Monitoring
Name:	Veenstra, Bertil J.; Wyss, Thomas; Roos, Lilian; Delves, Simon K.; Buller, Mark J. and Beeler, Nadja
ISSN:	0966-6362 (Print) 1879-2219 (Online)
Publisher:	Elsevier
Language:	English
Submitter:	Service Account
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2020 15:55
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2020 15:55
Publisher DOI:	10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.01.011
Related URLs:	Publication
PubMed ID:	29413785
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Walking distance Body wearable sensors Gait characteristics Walk ratio Loaded marching Military
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.11000
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/11000