The use of wearable inertial measurement units to assess gait and balance outcomes related to fall risk among older adults

这个令人兴奋的博士课程的目的是验证一种新兴的新技术，通过采用人体稳定性的第一原理和使用可穿戴惯性测量单元（伊穆斯）对人体测试对象进行评估，可以更可靠地评估福尔斯的风险。多学科的监督团队包括工程（人体运动和地面反作用力）和物理治疗方面的专业知识。福尔斯影响三分之一的老年人，每年给个人和NHS带来23亿英镑的重大个人和财务成本。IMU的测量结果将与佩戴者运动学和动力学的个性化人体测量模型相结合。这样做的结果将是一组连续计算的动态力，包括作用在人体上的三轴地面反作用力（包括跟踪压力中心和质心），当失去平衡时，会导致身体失去稳定性和摔倒。与描述导致飞机飞行稳定性丧失的条件的“飞行包线”类似，将开发描述导致运动物体稳定性丧失的条件的“坠落包线”。跟踪真实的身体运动和作用在其上的所有力的平衡然后将被用于连续地监测人体与该包络线（即，全天下降）的接近程度。这将为福尔斯提供一种新的风险评估工具，可能作为移动的电话应用程序来实现，该应用程序可由患者、护理人员或物理治疗师使用，以例如评估治疗、康复等的需要和效果。目前，跌倒风险基于涉及平衡等测试的临床（而不是真实的生活环境）评估。然而，这些是高度主观的、短期的，并且在正常环境中的正常日常活动期间不提供一段时间内的连续测量。能够更好地评估个人跌倒的风险可能有助于物理治疗师根据个人的损伤以及这些损伤如何受到现实环境因素的影响来定制锻炼计划。EPSRC DTP资助的博士生将使用批准的临床测试协议，有机会与老年人和病人，工程师和理疗师一起工作。

The aim of this exciting doctoral programme is to validate an emerging new technology whereby risk of falls could be assessed much more reliably by employing first principles of body stability and using wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) on human test subjects. The multidisciplinary supervisory team includes expertise in engineering (human motion and ground reaction forces) and physiotherapy.Falls affect a third of older people and have significant personal and financial costs to individuals and the NHS in the region of £2.3 billion per annum.Measurements from the IMU will be coupled with personalised anthropometric model of the the wearer's kinematics and kinetics while moving. The result of this will be a continuously calculated set of dynamic forces, including triaxial ground reaction forces acting on the human body (including tracking centre of pressure and centre of mass) which, when out of balance, cause loss of body stability and falling. Similar to 'flight envelope' describing conditions leading to loss of flight stability of an aircraft, 'fall envelope' will be developed describing conditions leading to loss of moving body stability. Tracking real body motion and balance of all forces acting on it will then be used to monitor continuously how close human body is to this envelope i.e. to falling throughout the day. This will then provide a novel risk assessment tool for falls, possibly implemented as a mobile phone app which can be used by a patient, carer or physiotherapist to, for example, evaluate the need for and effects of treatment, rehabilitation, etc.Risk of falling is currently based on clinical (rather than real life environment) assessments involving tests such as balance. These are, however, highly subjective, short-term and do not provide a continuous measure over a period of time during normal daily activities in a normal environment. Being better able to assess risk of falling for individuals may aid physiotherapists to individually tailor exercise programmes, taking into consideration individual impairments as well as how these are affected by realistic environmental factors.The EPSRC DTP-funded doctoral student will apply and extend IMU-based gait measurement technology to the case of instability of human participants using approved clinical test protocols, with the opportunity to work with older people and patients, engineers and physiotherapists.