Human Gait Acquisition and Characterization

This paper analyzes human motion, more specifically the human gait in the sagittal plane. A video camera is used to acquire images of a walking person, fitted with a set of white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The acquired trajectories of the light points are then used to specify joint trajectories in a biped robot. To analyze the stability of the human gait, a system was also developed to acquire the center of pressure (CoP). This system uses eight force sensors, four under each foot. The influence of the human torso angle on the CoP position during walking was confirmed. Some experiments were carried out on a biped robot, and the results show that the acquired human gait can be used in a biped robot, after scale conversion.