A Robust Methodology for the Reconstruction of the Vertical Pedestrian-Induced Load from the Registered Body Motion

This paper proposes a methodology to reconstruct the vertical GRFs from the registered body motion that is reasonably robust against measurement noise. The vertical GRFs are reconstructed from the experimentally identified time-variant pacing rate and a generalised single-step load model available in the literature. The proposed methodology only requires accurately capturing the body motion within the frequency range 1–10 Hz and does not rely on the exact magnitude of the registered signal. The methodology can therefore also be applied when low-cost sensors are used and to minimize the impact of soft-tissue artefacts. In addition, the proposed procedure can be applied regardless of the position of the sensor on the human body, as long as the recorded body motion allows for identifying the time of a nominally identical event in successive walking cycles. The methodology is illustrated by a numerical example and applied to an experimental dataset where the ground reaction forces and the body motion were registered simultaneously. The results show that the proposed methodology allows for arriving at a good estimate of the vertical ground reaction forces. When the impact of soft-tissue artefacts is low, a comparable estimate can be obtained using Newton’s second law of motion.