# A Novel Wearable Foot and Ankle Monitoring System for the Assessment of Gait Biomechanics
## 3 Results  
The laboratory proof of concept of the proposed wearable gait monitoring system was tested and validated indoors in laboratory environment. One healthy male volunteer, with no history of walking disorders, has tested the system under three walking scenarios: normal walking--accounting for physiological gait, and heel walking and toe walking--accounting for pathological gait. The walking activity assumed 20 steps of walking around the laboratory (as allowed by a 5 m long USB cable which connects the proposed wearable gait monitoring system to a laptop computer) with a pace of 13 min/km (the pace was monitored with a personal Garmin Fenix 5 smartwatch). The left leg was considered to be the leading limb. The subject performed 5 trials of steady-state walking exercises to understand the required activity and one trial steady-state walking for subsequent analysis with the proposed gait monitoring system. We have considered the onset of gait as the first strike of the left leg after a minimum 10 s standstill. The first four steps, i.e., first two walking cycles, are accounted for gait initiation as prescribed by [PERSON] et al. in [53]. As such, gait analysis is performed subsequent to the first four steps. The matter of the exact gait initiation moment must be clarified at this stage. According to [PERSON] et al., the onset of gait is defined as having less than 0.5% of half of the body weight on the leading limb in upright standstill posture [53]. With the proposed wearable gait monitoring system, we only monitor plantar pressures-without conversion to ground \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{5}{c}{**Stance Phase**} \\ \cline{2-6}  & **0–2\%** & **0–10\%** & **10–30\%** & **30–50\%** & **50–60\%** \\ \hline R\({}_{\text{FSR5,TA}}\) & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR4,TA}}\) & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR3,TA}}\) & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR2,TA}}\) & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR1,TA}}\) & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR0,TA}}\) & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR5,GC}}\) & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR4,GC}}\) & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR3,GC}}\) & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR2,GC}}\) & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR1,GC}}\) & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\ R\({}_{\text{FSR0,GC}}\) & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Template for the gait map of physiological walking. reaction forces or body weight, and also, we do not acquire any information regarding joint motion and posture. As such, we are unable to assess gait initiation as prescribed by [PERSON] et al. Nevertheless, the accent in this work is on analyzing steady state walking, and as such, gait onset and gait initiation do not render useful information. Moreover, the exact moment of gait onset will not alter whatsoever on the assessment of steady state walking. A set of conclusive test results is presented as follows. The FSR recordings during a stance phase are plotted in Figure 17. The corresponding COP progression line, rendered with Processing, is illustrated in Figure 18. As shown both in Figures 17 and 18, normal gait follows the evolution of the plantar pressures starting with pressure recorded on FSR\({}_{5}\) at heel strike, followed by pressure along the footprint medial line FSR\({}_{4}\) towards FSR\({}_{1}\), and finally pressure on FSR\({}_{0}\) at toe-off. Deviations from the COP progression line are an indicator of some form of gait pathology. Further on, the FSR readings are plotted in Figure 19 alongside the EMG of the tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius respectively. As illustrated, plantar pressures and muscular  
Figure 17: The FSR recordings during a stance phase, following the successive activation of FSR\({}_{5}\)— heel area, FSR\({}_{4}\) to FSR\({}_{1}\)—midfoot, and FSR\({}_{0}\)—hallux.