Design and Development of Integrated Insole System for Gait Analysis

An insole system has been developed in this research, which is helpful in acquisition and analysis of gait parameters. Daily auditing is necessary to evaluate the quality of gait before, during and after rehabilitation. Footgear systems have been quite a popular choice for researchers as they are non-invasive with user friendly setup. The designed device analyses gait patterns using FSR type pressure sensors integrated within the shoe insole. The location of the sensors were identified by taking the footprint of the subject in a sandbox and then marking the depressions. The data was logged in each step and parameters were extracted through post processing of the acquired data. Experiments were performed to validate the reliability of the acquired data. The data showed symmetry for a healthy subj ect in terms of similar step length, stride length and velocity. A wireless pressure sensor-based insole system has been developed to monitor gait parameters and critical events. The device was used to calculate different parameters of one subj ect for 4 trials with different terrain/path lengths of 10 meter, 12 meter, 14 meter and 16 meter. The parameters worked out in this study were average stride length as 1.20±0.09 m, average step length as 0.60±0.05 m and average velocity as 0.67±0.03 mlsec along with heel strike and toe-off events for all trials.