Evaluation of force plate-less estimation of the trajectory of the centre of pressure during gait. Comparison of two anthropometric models.

The estimation of the trajectory of the centre of pressure during gait is possible without using force plate by modelling the whole body as a multi-segment chain. The kinematics and inertial parameters of each segment are necessary to determine the ground reaction forces and moments. The position of the centre of pressure can then be calculated at each frame of time. The objective of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of the estimation of the position of the centre of pressure during gait obtained without force plate data. Segment inertial parameters were determined using a proportional model and a geometric model. The modelling and calculations were computed for six volunteers and the estimated centres of pressure were compared to the centre of pressure measured using force plates considered as the gold standard. The estimation was better using the geometric model with an accuracy of 33 mm (4.1% of the peak-to-peak amplitude) on the longitudinal axis and 14.2 mm (12.9% of the peak-to-peak amplitude) on the lateral axis. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.