Gait Asymmetry Evaluation Using FMCW Radar in Daily Life Environments

Gait analysis plays a crucial role in medical diagnostics due to its ability to determine and quantify the patient’s physical abilities and limitations. Unlike the other competing sensors, radar is capable of measuring human gait in non-contact fashion. In this paper, we present the extraction of six different gait parameters using Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar within five walking steps. The range-time and Doppler-time information are used to extract the parameters. The range-time information of FMCW radar yields the walking duration, walking time, and average walking velocity whereas, the velocity-time information yields pause time during walking, inter-step distance variation, and inter-step time variations. An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is deployed as a ground-truth reference sensor to track the gait movement and a high correlation is found between radar and the reference sensor. Finally, as a use case example, gait parameters analysis is performed to detect asymmetric gait movement. Symmetric and asymmetric walking data is collected with radar and features analysis is performed which suggests that inter-step time and velocity variations contributes greatly in asymmetry detection.