A cost-effective instrumented walkway for measuring ground reaction forces in rats to assess gait pattern. (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Silva, Nuno; Sousa, Joaquim J.; Peres, Emanuel; Sousa, Antonio; Ruiz-Armenteros, Antonio M.; Varejão, A.; Morais, Raul
• Is Part Of: Measurement. Volume 103(2017)
• Page Start: 241
• Page End: 249
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: Gait analysis -- Vertical ground reaction force -- Low-cost force platform -- Instrumentation; Weights and measures -- Periodicals; Measurement -- Periodicals; Measurement; Weights and measures; Periodicals; 530.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.measurement.2017.02.044
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-2241

Abstract

Highlights: Low cost instrumented walkway able to characterize rats' gait patterns. Cost-effective system to make gait analysis studies more widely available. Data processing application which supports data analysis in a simple and fast way. Reduced adaptation time/training for animals before starting to acquire valid data. Abstract: Animal experiments have gained importance in human diseases studies, namely neurological diseases and its biomechanical and physiological aspects. As a model of human disease, the rat offers many advantages over other organisms. For the biomechanical aspects of locomotion these studies are based on the analysis of animals' kinetic parameters, accessed through a locomotion measurement system. However, these systems are not yet thoroughly developed, are still scarce and are also very expensive when developed for studies using small rodents. In this paper, a system capable of measuring contact forces of small rodents is presented. The platform hardware is based on a 5 × 3 matrix of ultra-sensitive force sensors that produce a set of signals acquired in a LabVIEW TM environment, used for data acquisition and processing. The post processing steps include the removal of null data, curve normalization related to the rat's weight and expressed as percentage of passage, resulting in a gait pattern. The proposed cost-effective system has achieved excellent results regarding the locomotion profile of healthy animals.