Portable System for Monitoring A.D.L., Including A.T. Use, in Urban Environments

摘要

To truly test functionality, activities of daily living (ADL) are best tested where everyday activities actually take place. The aim of the project was to develop a portable system, based on triaxial body-worn inertial sensors (Xsens), a data logger based on a personal digital assistant and Matlab analyses software, to conduct ecological studies. To study walking, healthy subjects wearing three sensors walked a 1 km route in London. Five 30 m segments, each with different flooring or lighting, were analysed. The outcome was the root mean square (RMS) of the medio-lateral acceleration of each the back, neck and head [1]. After Mann-Whitney analysis, it was possible to confirm how the head and the neck were stabilized by the increased excursions of the lower back, especially when the floor or lighting condition was more challenging for the participants to maintain balance [2]. In the stair-climbing study, where eight stairs comprised a flight, the ratio of the speed of descent to ascent changed from more than one (as in young healthy people) to less than one and was found to be a good indicator of frailty regarding stair climbing ability. The system has also been used in a trial of a new stair walker [3]. More recently, manual wheelchair self-propulsion has also been studied with sensors placed on both upper limbs, highlighting the features of the propulsion cycle under various rolling conditions.