10.25673/119236">
Proceedings of International Conference on Applied Innovation in IT  ·  2025/04/26  ·  Vol. 13  ·  Issue 1  ·  pp. 213–222
Sensor-Based Gait Analysis: A Comparative Study of Ultrasonic and Laser Sensors for Gait Monitoring in Rollator-Assisted Walking
Ivan Omeko, Stefan Twieg and Martin Obert
The AktiMuW project aims to enhance mobility assistance for elderly individuals by developing a smart rollator equipped with advanced posture monitoring. A crucial aspect of this system is the detection and correction of the user's posture of legs. This is based on measuring the distance between the user and the rollator, among other methods. The study evaluates three different distance sensors — HC-SR04, HC-SR04-P, and TFmini-S to determine the most reliable and suitable option. To achieve this, a series of use case centered experiments were conducted, where each sensor's performance was tested. The HC-SR04 demonstrated relatively low measurement error, with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values ranging from 0.64 cm to 0.89 cm but required a 5V power supply and additional voltage conversion components, complicating integration to single board computers (SBC). The HC-SR04-P, an updated model, operates reliably at 3.3V — compatible with Raspberry Pi boards — and maintained comparable measurement precision, with RMSE values of 0.57 cm and 0.78 cm. In contrast, the TFmini-S LiDAR sensor exhibited higher RMSE values of 5.42 cm and 2.89 cm, particularly struggling at shorter distances, making it unsuitable for this application. Further gait analysis tests confirmed that the HC-SR04-P could effectively monitor the user's position, despite occasional signal reflections. The study concludes that the HC-SR04-P is the optimal choice for the rollator Machine Learning algorithms due to its balance of accuracy, compatibility, and cost-effectiveness. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of sensor-based posture monitoring and hold practical significance for the development of assistive mobility devices and further algorithms.
Sensor Signal Processing Gait Analysis Ultrasonic Sensor Laser Sensor Machine Learning Algorithms Elderly Support Rollator.
References
  1. World Health Organization, "Ageing and Health," October 2022, [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health.
  2. E. Jaul and J. Barron, "Age-Related Diseases and Clinical and Public Health Implications for the 85 Years Old and Over Population," Front Public Health, vol. 5, p. 335, 2017.
  3. V. Kurumbaparambil, S. Rajanayagam and S. Twieg, "Modular Robotic Reinforcement Learning Platform for Object Manipulation," 2024, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.25673/115703.
  4. Translationsregion für digitalisierte Gesundheitsversorgung, "Aktiv im Alter durch Multisensorische Umfeldwahrnehmung – pflege- und versorgungswissenschaftlich evaluative Begleitung der co-kreativen Entwicklung," [Online]. Available: https://inno-tdg.de/projekte/aktimuw/.
  5. F. Mubarak and R. Suomi, "Elderly Forgotten? Digital Exclusion in the Information Age and the Rising Grey Digital Divide," INQUIRY, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1177/00469580221096272.
  6. S. Twieg and R. Menghani, "Analysis and Implementation of an Efficient Traffic Sign Recognition," in 11th International Conference on Applied Innovations in IT (ICAIIT), Köthen, 2023.
  7. Z. Wu, Y. Huang, L. Wang, X. Wang and T. Tan, "A comprehensive study on cross-view gait based human identification with deep cnns," IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, vol. 39, no. 2, 2016.
  8. E. J. Harris, I. Khoo and E. Demircan, "A Survey of Human Gait-Based Artificial Intelligence Applications," Front. Robot. AI, 03 January 2022, Sec. Biomedical Robotics, Volume 8 – 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.749274.
  9. Elecfreaks.com, "Ultrasonic Ranging Module HC - SR04," [Online]. Available: https://www.elecfreaks.com/download/HC-SR04.pdf.
  10. E. Blasch et al., "Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence for Sensor Data Fusion–Opportunities and Challenges," in IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 80-93, 1 July 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/MAES.2020.3049030.
  11. Y. LeCun, Y. Bengio and G. Hinton, "Deep learning," Nature, vol. 521, 2015.
  12. R. S. Sutton and A. G. Barto, "Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction," IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1054-1054, 1998, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/TNN.1998.712192.
  13. S. M. Alfayeed and B. S. Saini, "Human Gait Analysis Using Machine Learning: A Review," 2021 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Knowledge Economy (ICCIKE), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2021, pp. 550-554, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCIKE51210.2021.9410678.
  14. Roboter-Bausatz.de, "Datenblatt - HC-SR04-P Ultraschallsensor Entfernungsmesser," [Online]. Available: https://www.roboter-bausatz.de/datasheet/RBS11813.pdf.
  15. Benewake (Beijing) Co. Ltd., "Product Manual of TFmini-S," [Online]. Available: https://en.benewake.com/uploadfiles/2025/04/20250430175136263.pdf.
  16. T. O. Hodson, "Root-mean-square error (RMSE) or mean absolute error (MAE): when to use them or not," Geosci. Model Dev., vol. 15, pp. 5481–5487, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5481-2022.
  17. C. E. Shannon, "Communication in the Presence of Noise," in Proceedings of the IRE, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 10-21, Jan. 1949, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1949.232969.
  18. Y. Wahab and N. A. Bakar, "Gait analysis measurement for sport application based on ultrasonic system," 2011 IEEE 15th International Symposium on Consumer Electronics (ISCE), Singapore, 2011, pp. 20-24, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCE.2011.5973775.
  19. R. B. Huitema, A. L. Hof and K. Postema, "Ultrasonic motion analysis system—measurement of temporal and spatial gait parameters," Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 837-842, 2002, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(02)00032-5.
  20. A. Macie, T. Matson and A. Schinkel-Ivy, "Age affects the relationships between kinematics and postural stability during gait," Gait & Posture, vol. 102, pp. 86-92, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2023.03.004.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Applied Innovations in IT by Anhalt University of Applied Sciences is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0  ·  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

ICAIIT 2026
International Conference on Applied Innovation in IT
Navigation
Publisher
ISSN2199-8876
Location Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Phone +49 (0) 3496 67 5611
Address Building 01, Room 425
Bernburger Str. 55
D-06366 Köthen, Germany
Open Access License

All works are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), unless otherwise noted.

Published by ICAIIT in cooperation with Anhalt University of Applied Sciences.

© 2026 ICAIIT — International Conference on Applied Innovations in IT. Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Köthen, Germany.
Visitors: site traffic counter