John, Sage, Ryan, and Jovais

10/13/19

Gait Analysis Report

Part 1 Intro:

Walking gaits are the unique manners in which people walk and run. By

measuring body dimensions of each test subject and testing the g force surrounding

their individual walking gaits, we hypothesize that the different dimensions of each

subjects body effect the total g force of their walking gait. In this open-ended, hands-on

activity, we were given gait signature metric (GSM) data for known people types (adults

and children) and were tasked with collecting data on people in the class. Next we

analyzed the data given and collected and developed models. Lastly we graphed the

data of each subject.

Questions to consider

1. How would you describe the walking gait of each subject?

Normal gait – It is a rhythmic & characterized by alternating propulsive &

retropulsive motions of the lower extremities. We all have normal gait patterns,

some with longer strides or faster pace than others.

2. What quantities could be measured to analyze walking gaits?

Body dimensions, speed, acceleration, and g-force are just some of the ways

that walking gaits can be analyzed.

3. In the context of walking gaits, what do the terms symmetry, variability and

dynamicity mean?
 Symmetry in this context means how the two sides of the body are moving in

respect to each other. For example, you can identify walking gaits looking at the

symmetry of the swinging of the legs; both left and right, and comparing them to

one another. Variability in terms of walking gaits refers to the changes in the

consistency of the walking gait as the subject walks along the path of the trial.

Dynamicity refers to how the walking gait changes per step during the trials.

4. How could an accelerometer be used to quantify walking gaits?

An accelerometer could be used to measure the acceleration of the subject

during the trials. It could also be used to measure the acceleration of different parts of

the body during the trials.

Key Concepts:

accelerometer: A device that measures the physical acceleration experienced by an

object.

dynamicity: In terms of gait analysis, the quantification of variations in kinematic or

kinetic parameters within a step.

gait: The stride of a human as s/he moves his/her limbs.

metric: A quantitative indicator of a characteristic or attribute.

model: In technology, a description of observed or predicted behavior of some system,

simplified by ignoring certain details. Models allow complex systems to be understood
and their behavior predicted.

symmetry: In terms of gait analysis, the quantification of differences between left-foot

and right-foot steps.
variability: In terms of gait analysis, the quantification of fluctuations from one stride to
the next.
Materials:

- Cell phone

- Accelerometer

- Method of attaching accelerometer to the subject’s body

- Google sheets

Part 2:

Measurements (In.) Sage Jovais John

foot 13 11.5 12

Ankle to knee 19 18 20

Knee to hip 21 22 25

Hip to shoulder 18 17 18

Shoulder to elbow 9.5 11 13

Elbow to fingertip 18 17 19

John:
Sage:

Ryan:
 For the experiment shown in the graphs above, we walked 20 feet while timing

how long it took for each subject to walk that distance. The results are:

Ryan: 4.3 seconds

Sage: 4.5 seconds

John: 5 seconds

Part 3:

Results:

During our trials we attempted to find a correlation between the body dimensions of the

test subjects and the total g-force that resulted from their walking gaits. Many factors

limited us from being able to do this. First we ran into the problem of switching between

group members as test subjects because we had movement between the group and the

plane mentors group during our experiment. Another reason that we were not able to

find a correlation between these two things was that there were too many variations in
the body dimensions of each subject. It turned out to be true that on subject could have

longer legs than another, but at the same time have shorter arms. These variations

skewed the data that was needed for us to prove or disprove our hypothesis.

We did however find that there was a correlation between the speed at which the

subject walked and the peak g-force as a result of the walking gait. The fastest trial

(Ryan’s) resulted in a peak g-force that was higher than the slowest trial (John’s). This

may be just because it was a faster pace of walking but it could also be a trait of Ryan’s

walking gait where there is more variation during his stride that contribute to this greater

g-force.