Human crawling performance and technique revealed by inertial measurement units |
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| Affiliation: | 1. BAE Systems, Bridge Road, Barrow-in-Furness LA14 1AF, UK;2. School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University Science Site, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK;1. Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;2. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia;3. Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy;1. Dept. of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy, Umeå University, Sweden;2. Dept. of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden;3. Dept. of Forest Biomaterials & Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden;4. Dept. of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden;5. Dept. of Radiation Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Umeå University, Sweden;1. Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movements Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA;2. Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, USA;3. Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA;4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA |
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| Abstract: | Human crawling performance and technique are of broad interest to roboticists, biomechanists, and military personnel. This study explores the variables that define crawling performance in the context of an outdoor obstacle course used by military organizations worldwide to evaluate the effects of load and personal equipment on warfighter performance. Crawling kinematics, measured from four body-worn inertial measurement units (IMUs) attached to the upper arms and thighs, are recorded for thirty-three participants. The IMU data is distilled to four metrics of crawling performance; namely, crawl speed, crawl stride time, ipsilateral limb coordination, and contralateral limb coordination. We hypothesize that higher performance (as identified by higher crawl speeds) is associated with more coordinated limbs and lower stride times. A cluster analysis groups participants into high and low performers exhibiting statistically significant differences across the four performance metrics. In particular, high performers exhibit superior limb coordination associated with a “diagonal gait” in which contralateral limbs move largely in-phase to produce faster crawl speeds and shorter crawl stride times. In contrast, low performers crawl at slower speeds with longer crawl stride times and less limb coordination. Beyond these conclusions, a major contribution of this study is a method for deploying wearable IMUs to study crawling in contextually relevant (i.e. non-laboratory) environments. |
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| Keywords: | Inertial measurement units Crawling Limb coordination |
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