Estimation of Three-Dimensional Ground Reaction Force and Center of Pressure During Walking Using a Machine-Learning-Based Markerless Motion Capture System

Objective: We developed two neural network models to estimate the three-dimensional ground reaction force (GRF) and center of pressure (COP) based on marker trajectories obtained from a markerless motion capture system. Methods: Gait data were collected using two cameras and three force plates. Each...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ru Feng, Ukadike Christopher Ugbolue, Chen Yang, Hui Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Bioengineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5354/12/6/588
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective: We developed two neural network models to estimate the three-dimensional ground reaction force (GRF) and center of pressure (COP) based on marker trajectories obtained from a markerless motion capture system. Methods: Gait data were collected using two cameras and three force plates. Each gait dataset contained kinematic data and kinetic data from the stance phase. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and convolutional neural network (CNN) were constructed to estimate each component of GRF and COP based on the three-dimensional trajectories of the markers. A total of 100 samples were randomly selected as the test set, and the estimation performance was evaluated using the correlation coefficient (r) and relative root mean square error (rRMSE). Results: The r-values for MLP in each GRF component ranged from 0.918 to 0.989, with rRMSEs between 5.06% and 12.08%. The r-values for CNN in each GRF component ranged from 0.956 to 0.988, with rRMSEs between 6.03–9.44%. For the COP estimation, the r-values for MLP ranged from 0.727 to 0.982, with rRMSEs between 6.43% and 27.64%, while the r-values for CNN ranged from 0.896 to 0.977, with rRMSEs between 6.41% and 7.90%. Conclusions: It is possible to estimate GRF and COP from markerless motion capture data. This approach provides an alternative method for measuring kinetic parameters without force plates during gait analysis.
ISSN:2306-5354