Estimation of the base of support during gait with an unobtrusive wearable system

This study aimed at estimating the base of support (BoS) during gait with an unobtrusive wearable system. The BoS is the area identified by the points of contact of the body with the ground. During the double-support phase of gait both feet contribute to the BoS. The BoS is a measure of the subject’s balance. The estimation of the BoS outdoors is still an open issue. The innovative hardware presented here is a combination of a magneto-inertial measurement unit (MIMU) and two infrared time of flight (IR-ToF) sensors. The methods implemented to estimate the BoS were tested on a healthy subject and validated with a stereo-photogrammetric system. The results suggest that the solution proposed may be an effective and low-cost tool for the estimate of the BoS during gait in outdoor conditions.