WO2016061529A1

WO2016061529A1 - Wireless kinetic gait analysis and lameness detection system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2016061529A1
Application number: PCT/US2015/056058
Authority: WO
Inventors: Marco A. F. LOPES; Kevin G. Keegan; Yoshiharu YONEZAWA; Hiromitchi MAKI; P. Frank PAI; Rod SCHLOTZHAUER
Original assignee: The Curators Of The University Of Missouri
Priority date: 2014-10-16
Filing date: 2015-10-16
Publication date: 2016-04-21

Abstract

An animal gait analysis system includes a computing system that wirelessly receives, from a transmitter mounted on an animal, kinetics data associated with one or more forces exerted by one or more limbs of the animal on a ground. The transmitter receives the forces from a force-measuring sensor mounted on each of the limbs. The computing system processes the received kinetics data to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal.

Description

WIRELESS KINETIC GAIT ANALYSIS AND LAMENESS DETECTION

SYSTEM AND METHOD

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to U.S. Patent Application No. 62/122,294 titled "Wireless Kinetic System and Methods For Gait Analysis and Lameness Detection and Quantification in Animals," which was filed on October 16, 2014. The contents of 62/122,294 are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[0002] This invention was made with Government support under Grant No. AES 2013 awarded by the USDA. The Government may have certain rights in this invention.

COMPACT DISK APPENDIX

[0003] Not Applicable.

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0004] The present invention generally relates to gait analysis systems, and more particularly, to a wireless kinetics gait analysis and lameness detection system and method.

BACKGROUND

[0005] Gait analysis and lameness detection and quantification are useful for the study of animal locomotion. Knowledge on animal locomotion has multiple applications such as: the development of robots and other useful tools; guidance of genetic selection of animals with desirable locomotion abilities (e.g., racing dogs and horses, gaited horses, show horses); diagnosis of neurologic and/or musculoskeletal problems that cause gait abnormalities including disease models to study conditions affecting humans; assessment of response to treatment for neurologic and/or musculoskeletal problems that cause gait abnormalities including treatments being developed for use in humans. Subjective assessment of locomotion and lameness (i.e., based exclusively on visual evaluation of the animal in motion) is often inaccurate and unreliable. Therefore, relatively accurate measurement of locomotion and lameness often require certain tools to perform an objective assessment of any gait abnormalities that may exist in an animal.

SUMMARY

[0006] According to one embodiment, an animal gait analysis system includes a computing system that wirelessly receives, from a transmitter mounted on an animal, kinetics data associated with one or more forces exerted by one or more limbs of the animal on a ground. The transmitter receives the forces from a force- measuring sensor mounted on each of the limbs. The computing system processes the received kinetics data to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal.

[0007] According to another embodiment, an animal gait analysis method includes wirelessly receiving, using a processor, kinetics data associated with one or more forces exerted by one or more limbs of the animal on a ground from a transmitter mounted on the animal. The transmitter obtains the one or more forces using a force-measuring device mounted on each of the limbs. The processor then processes the received kinetics data to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal.

[0008] According to yet another embodiment, a gait analysis system includes a processor that wirelessly receives from a transmitter mounted on an animal such as a horse, kinetics data associated with forces exerted by four limbs of the animal on a ground. The transmitter obtaining the force level from three pressure sensors mounted on each of the limbs of the animal. The processor also processes the received kinetics data using one or more filters to generate processed kinetics data, and determines a gait of the animal in which the gait comprising at least one of a walking gait, an ambling gait, a trotting gait, a left lead canter, a right lead canter, a left lead gallop, and a right lead gallop. Using the processed kinetics data, the processor determines a lameness characteristic of the animal.

[0009] According to yet another embodiment, an animal gait analysis apparatus includes a force measuring device to measure one or more forces exerted by a limb of an animal using one or more force measuring sensors. The one or more forces measured by each force measuring sensor is processed to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal. The force measuring device physically couples the force measuring sensors to the limb of the animal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates an example animal gait analysis system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0011] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate several elements of an example shoe that may be used with the animal gait analysis system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates an example configuration of an animal gait analysis system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0013] FIG. 4 illustrates one example of the computing device of the gait analysis system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0014] FIGS. 5 A - 5C illustrate example plots of the kinetics data received from certain force-measuring devices by the computing device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0015] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an example process that may be performed by the application 404 to receive and analyze kinetics data according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer device for use with the example embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] Embodiments of the present disclosure described herein provide a kinetics gait analysis system for detecting and quantifying gait characteristics, such as lameness, in animals. The system utilizes wireless sensors mounted on an animal that transmits telemetry data to a computing device in real-time such that the computing device may perform analysis of certain gait characteristics may be detected and quantified. The wireless configuration may provide use in laboratory settings as well as in remote locations to collect kinetics data from sequences of strides during a wide range of time intervals (e.g., from a few seconds to up to several hours). The system employs simple and non- invasive animal instrumentation, which may reduce or eliminate ethical concerns associated with animal welfare. Furthermore, embodiments of the gait analysis and lameness detection system may provide a cost effective alternative to conventional systems that are often cumbersome and costly to use.

[0018] Various approaches for objective gait analysis and objective detection and quantification of lameness can be classified as kinematic analysis (i.e., the study of motion without assessing forces associated with that motion) and kinetics analysis (i.e., the study of forces associated with motion) approaches. In some cases, both kinematic analysis and kinetics analysis may be employed for enhanced assessment of gait for detection and quantification of lameness in animals.

[0019] A conventional kinematic approach involves high speed video recordings of the motion of a series of reflective markers mounted on key anatomic sites on an animal followed by bi-dimensional or tri-dimensional reconstruction of the motion of each marker in a computing device. Nevertheless, the use of high speed video recordings has several limitations, such as a relatively high cost of equipment and software, as well as time consuming instrumentation, data collection and data analysis. Recent development of small inertial sensors has provided for kinematically assessing gait for detection and quantification of lameness in animals, which has several advantages such as to allow simplification of animal instrumentation, data collection, and data analysis. However, regardless of the type of approach used, kinematic evaluation has certain limitations. For example, kinematic analysis does not measure forces thus it does not allow complete assessment of animal locomotion. Furthermore, kinematic evaluation cannot be used to assess the abnormal use of the limb due to pain in an animal that is not moving but is standing still.

[0020] A conventional kinetics approach for gait analysis for lameness detection and quantification in animals involves the use of one or more stationary force plates. This approach quantifies the ground reaction forces on the limb when the animal steps on the force plates. To study animal locomotion (e.g., dynamic movement), the force plates are typically placed in the middle of a runway and the animal is moved over the force plates at a certain speed. Despite being considered an optimal approach for kinetics gait analysis and lameness detection, this approach is expensive and time consuming which may preclude its widespread use for research and clinical evaluation. Furthermore, the stationary force plates are limited to use in artificial environments and does not easily provide for data collection from multiple sequences of strides.

[0021] Other methods for kinetics gait analysis and lameness detection have also been developed with the purpose of overcoming some of the limitations of the stationary force plates. For example, force measuring mats built with piezo-resistive materials are commercially available. However, these force measuring mats are expensive, and especially for larger animals, they only allow collection of relatively short stride sequences. Another approach involves a system based on force- measuring insoles built with piezo-resistive materials. Regardless of sensor configuration however, the cost of piezo-resistive based materials can be relatively high especially for large animals due at least in part to the relatively short useable life of piezo-resistive materials when repeatedly exposed to high loads produced by animal feet, such as those of a horse. Yet another approach for kinetics gait analysis involves a force-measuring treadmill to assess vertical ground reaction forces in horses exercised at different gaits. This instrument includes multiple force measuring plates under the belt of a large treadmill. Unfortunately this treadmill is expensive and thus not commercially viable. Furthermore, the treadmill may adversely affect the natural movement of the animal and thus limit the accuracy of any assessment derived therefrom.

[0022] FIG. 1 illustrates an example animal gait analysis system 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure that may provide a solution to certain problems associated with conventional gait analysis systems as described above. The animal gait analysis system 100 includes one or more shoes 102 that may be mounted on a corresponding one or more feet 104 of an animal, which in this particular example is a horse 106 in which each shoe 102 measures forces of the foot upon the ground, and transmits the measured kinetics data to a computing device 112 via a receiver 114 configured on the computing device 112. The kinetics data may be received in real-time or at pre-set times to the computing device 112 for processing the kinetics data to analyze gait characteristics of the horse 106, such as for detecting and quantifying lameness in the horse 106.

[0023] The present example describes a horse 106 upon which the system 100 may be used may be any type. Nevertheless, it is contemplated that the animal may be any type or breed, such as a mule, a donkey, a cow, a camel, an ox, or even a human test subject. Additionally, the shoes 102 may be mounted on all or only a subset of the feet 104 of the horse. For example, the shoes 102 may be mounted on all four feet, only the two front feet, only the two hind feet, only the two right feet, or only the two left feet.

[0024] Embodiments of the kinetics-measuring shoes 102 may provide an effective technique to overcome certain limitations associated with conventional approaches to gait analysis and lameness detection in animals. The force-measuring shoes 102 can provide for data collection and analysis both in the laboratory and in the field when the animal is moving on any kind of surface. The force-measuring shoes may also provide for the collection of large sequences of strides. Additionally, the use of wireless signaling provides for gait analysis without the use of external wiring that would otherwise limit the effective physical range that may be used for animal gait analysis.

[0025] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate several elements of an example shoe 200 that may be used with the animal gait analysis system 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The shoe 200 includes a frame 202 configured with three sensors 204, and an electrical circuit 206. The frame 202 may be mounted on the horse 106 in any suitable manner. For example, the frame 202 may be formed of a structurally rigid material, such as steel or iron, which is mounted on the foot 104 of a horse 106 using typical horse- shoeing techniques. As another example, the frame 202 may be formed from an elastic material, such as rubber or plastic, into the shape of a boot that can be stretch-fitted over the foot 104 of the horse 106.

[0026] As shown, the shoe 200 includes three sensors 204; nevertheless, the shoe 200 may include any number of sensors 204, such as one sensor, two sensors, or four or more sensors. Multiple sensors 204 on the shoe 200 may be useful for sensing kinetics at localized regions of the foot of the horse 106. Each sensor 204 is configured to generate a signal that comprises load data from the part of the foot correspondent to where the sensor is positioned. For example, a first sensor 204' positioned under the toe of the right front foot may generate a signal comprising load data representative of the load on the toe of the right front foot. A second sensor 204" positioned under the lateral part of the right front foot may generate a signal comprising load data representative of the load on the lateral part of the right front foot. A third sensor 204" ' positioned under the medial part of the right front limb may generate a signal comprising load data representative of the load on the medial part of the right front foot.

[0027] Each sensor 204 is coupled to the electrical circuit 206 that transmits the kinetics data obtained from the sensors 204 to the computing device 112 for analysis. In one embodiment, a transmitter may be integrally formed with the electrical circuit 206 for wirelessly transmitting the sensor telemetry information to the computing device 112. In other embodiments, the transmitter may be

implemented outside of the shoe 102, such as on the ankle of the horse 106, in which the telemetry information is conveyed to the transmitter from the sensors 204 using wire cabling extending between the shoe 200 and the transmitter. Additional information related to the electrical circuit 206 are described in detail herein below.

[0028] FIG. 3 illustrates an example configuration of an animal gait analysis system 300 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, four shoes 302 are provided each having three sensors, a toe sensor 304', a lateral heel sensor 304", and a medial heel sensor 304" ' . For example, the four shoes 302 may be provided for mounting on the four feet of an animal, such as a horse. In other embodiments, more or less than four shoes 302 may be provided. For example, two shoes 302 may be provided for mounting on the two front feet of an animal.

[0029] Each shoe 302 includes an electrical circuit 306 which may include, for example, a microcontroller or other small hardware-based embedded processing unit having a memory to store instructions that are executed by a processor. The electrical circuit 306 includes a transmitter 308 for transmitting kinetics data to the computing device 112 via the receiver 114 coupled to the computing device 112.

[0030] In one embodiment, the electrical circuit 306 may include certain instructions for performing at least a portion of the processes performed on the obtained kinetics data. The electrical circuit 306 may include any type of circuitry that processes kinetics data obtained from the sensors 304. For example, the electrical circuit 306 may include one or more filters for filtering the kinetics data prior to being transmitted to the computing device 114. As another example, the electrical circuit 306 may include computer-based circuitry incorporating instructions stored in a memory and executed by a processor, discrete and/or integrated analog circuitry, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or any combination thereof. For example, the electrical circuit 306 may be used to process signals obtained from the sensors 304, such as conditioning the signals via automatic gain control (AGC), filtering spurious noise from the signals, filtering signals above and/or below upper and/or lower cutoff frequencies, amplifying small signals and/or attenuating unduly large signals. In some

embodiments, the electrical circuit 306 of each shoe 302 may perform one or more signal processing techniques as discussed below with reference to FIG. 4.

[0031] FIG. 4 illustrates one example of the computing device 112 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The computing device 112 includes a processing system 402 that executes a gait analysis application 404 stored in a memory 406 (e.g., computer readable media). The computing device 112 may include any type, such as a laptop or notebook computer, a workstation, a tablet computer, a smartphone, and the like, and/or complex computing structures, such as a computing cluster, a unified computing system, a blade array, or a dynamic infrastructure.

[0032] The processing system 402 includes one or more processors or other processing devices and memory. The one or more processors may process machine/computer-readable executable instructions and data, and the memory may store machine/computer-readable executable instructions and data including one or more applications, including the application 404. A processor is hardware and the memory is hardware. The memory 406 includes random access memory (RAM) and/or other non-transitory memory, e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as one or more flash disks or hard drives. The non-transitory memory may include any tangible computer-readable medium including, for example, magnetic and/or optical disks, flash drives, and the like.

[0033] The computing device 112 may also include a display 408, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a touch screen, a capacitive display, or another display for displaying configuration settings associated with the application 404. The computing device 112 may also include an input device 410, such as a keyboard, a mouse, or other electro-mechanical device for providing user input to the application 404. In one example, the display 408 and input device 410 may include a touch screen display for receiving user input and displaying one or more

characteristics associated with operation of the application 404. In one embodiment, the display 408 may include a user interface 412 for displaying information to the user, and receiving user input from the user.

[0034] In general, the processing system 402 executes a gait analysis application 404 that includes one or more modules to receive and analyze signals obtained from the sensors. In certain embodiments, the application 404 may analyze all characteristics of the received signals described herein. In other embodiments, the application 404 may share processing load with the electrical circuits 306 configured on each shoe 302 to analyze signals generated by the sensors 304.

[0035] A user interface module 414 facilitates the receipt of user data and/or other communications from the input device 410 of the computing device 112. In one example, the computing device 112 generates and executes the user interface 412 that displays an interactive display such as the display 408, or other suitable user interface mechanism including one or more selectable fields, editing screens, and the like for entering user supplied information and/or displaying information associated with one or more aspects of the application 404, such as a graph displaying the signals representing kinetics data as raw data from the sensors 204, or processed signals that have been processed by the application 404. The user interface module 414 may also display operational status information, such as a power source (e.g., battery) condition values for each of the shoes, signal quality information obtained from the receiverl l4, and the like.

[0036] A sensor interface module 416 facilitates receipt of the signals from the sensors 204. For example, the receiver 114 may be a wireless device with a USB connector. As such, the sensor interface module 416 may include an interface for communicating with a universal serial bus (USB) port of the computing device 112 for obtaining the signals from the receiver 114 using the USB port associated with the receiver 114. For another example, the receiver 114 may be a Wi-Fi communication device configured on the computing device 112. In this case, the sensor interface module 416 may include an application program interface (API) for communicating with the Wi-Fi communication device using its native interface. The user interface module 414 may also provide for entry of user supplied information, such as setting data collection windows, filtering values, and/or issuing processing commands.

Processing commands may include, for example, commands to initiate data acquisition and/or commands to initiate data analyses.

[0037] A data acquisition module 418 is configured to communicate with the sensor interface module 416 for collecting kinetics data (e.g., raw signals) from the sensors according to one or more criteria. For example, the data acquisition module 418 may be configured to collect kinetics data continuously (e.g., non-stop continuous mode), or during one or more specified time intervals that may range from a few seconds to several hours (e.g., intermittent mode). The specified time intervals may be received from the user interface module 414 as defined by the user. For example, prior to executing the application 404, the data acquisition module 418 may receive a desired time interval for collecting kinetics data according to a particular type of lameness characteristic to be identified.

[0038] In one embodiment, the data acquisition module 418 may arrange the collected kinetics data into different data sets according to the location of each sensor 204, such as which foot 104 that the sensor is mounted on and/or the location of each sensor on the foot 104 (e.g., toe sensor, lateral sensor, and medial sensor). In one aspect, the data acquisition module 418 may store kinetics data independently for each sensor in the memory 406 as one or more tables. For example, the data- acquisition module 418 may create a right front toe table for storing kinetics data sensed by the sensor positioned under the toe of the right front foot, a right front lateral heel table for storing kinetics data sensed by the sensor positioned under the lateral heel of the right front foot, and a right front medial heel table for storing kinetics data sensed by the sensor positioned under the medial heel of the right front foot.

[0039] A kinetics data filtering module 420 processes the kinetics data using one or more techniques to provide certain effects, such as smoothing the kinetics data to remove measurement artifacts that may otherwise degrade the quality of the gait analysis. In one embodiment, the kinetics data filtering module 420 may include a curve fitting algorithm, such as a recursive and/or Gaussian curve fitting algorithm to filter noise from the kinetics data measurements. In another embodiment, the kinetics data filtering module 420 may include one or more filtering mechanisms, such as a high pass filter, a band pass filter, or low pass filter, such as a moving average algorithm to filter noise from the kinetics data measurements (e.g., such as those values that may be indicative of spurious noise introduced into the system) using certain specified low frequency and/or high frequency cut-off points.

[0040] An outlier removal module 422 removes kinetics data outliers associated with cyclic values of the animal' s gait, such as that strides taken during various gaits (e.g., walking, trot, pace, left lead canter, right lead canter, left lead gallop, right lead gallop, etc.). In one embodiment, the outlier removal module 422 may use a statistical approach to removing gait-based outliers. For example, the outlier removal module 422 may remove cycles representing strides having a peak or impulse force outside an interquartile range. That is, the outlier removal module 422 arranges the cycles based on the magnitude of peak force or impulse, finds the 25 percent and 75 percent quartiles and excludes all strides outside of this interval.

[0041] A gait detection module 424 detects a gait of the horse based on certain criteria, such as stride frequency and/or timing and duration of load on each foot of the animal. The gait will be classified as symmetric when timing and duration of load on the feet of the left side of the body mirrors the timing and duration of load on the feet of the right side of the body. Conversely, the gait will be classified as asymmetric when timing and duration of load on the feet of the left side of the body is different than timing and duration of load on the feet of the right side of the body. The gait may also be classified by the number of beats (i.e., number of distinct limb contact times with the ground). For quadrupeds such as horses, the gait will be further classified based on one or more standard definitions of gait such as: a walk (i.e., a slow four beat symmetric gait with no suspension phase), ambling (i.e., a fast four beat symmetric gait with no suspension phase), a trot (i.e., a two beat symmetric gait with diagonal synchronization of front and hind limbs and a suspension phase between each beat), a pace (i.e., a two beat symmetric gait with lateral

synchronization of front and hind limbs and a suspension phase between each beat), a left lead canter (i.e., a three beat asymmetric gait characterized by synchronic load on the right front and left hind feet), a right lead canter (i.e., a three beat asymmetric gait characterized by synchronic load on the left front and right hind feet), a left lead gallop (i.e., a four beat asymmetric gait where the left front limb is the last limb to be loaded), or a right lead gallop (i.e., a four beat asymmetric gait where the right front limb is the last limb to be loaded).

[0042] A lameness detection module 426 detects and quantifies lameness based on relative peak force or impulse on each part of each limb during each stride or time interval. For each limb, relative peak force or impulse is calculated as a fraction of total peak force or impulse per stride or time interval (e.g., sum of peak forces or impulses on all feet). For each part of each foot, relative peak force or impulse is calculated as a fraction of total peak force or impulse on the respective limb per stride or time interval (sum of peak forces or impulses on all parts of the foot). For symmetric gaits (e.g., trot), loads on left and right feet of each limb pair are compared and difference larger than a specified amount (e.g., 5 percent) indicate lameness on the limb with reduced load. For asymmetric gaits (e.g., canter), the loads on each limb generated when the horse is moving on each lead (left and right), are compared and difference larger than a specified amount (e.g., 5 percent) indicate lameness on the limb with reduced load.

[0043] A reporting module 428 reports the results of the gait analysis. The reporting module 428 may report the results in any suitable fashion. For example, the reporting module 428 may report the results by displaying the level of asymmetry on the user interface, along with information about which limbs are exhibiting that asymmetry. [0044] It should be appreciated that the modules described herein are provided only as an example of a computing device that may execute the application 404 according to the teachings of the present invention, and that other computing devices may have the same modules, different modules, additional modules, or fewer modules than those described herein. For example, one or more modules as described in FIG. 4 may be combined into a single module. As another example, certain modules described herein may be encoded and executed on other circuits, such as another computing device that is separate from the computing device 112.

[0045] FIGS. 5 A - 5C illustrate example plots of the kinetics data received from certain sensors by the computing device 112 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In particular, the plots 502 and 504 of FIG. 5A represent the total kinetics data received from a force-measuring shoe attached to the left front foot of the horse 106, while plot 504 represents the kinetics data received from another force-measuring shoe attached to the right front foot of the horse 106. The plots 502 and 504 were obtained by performing four segments of strides of the horse trotted in hand back and forth two times. That is, segments 506' and 506" ' represents strides taken while the horse was trotted forward, while segments 506" and 506" " represent strides taken while the horse was trotted backwards for approximately 10 seconds during each segment.

[0046] FIG. 5B illustrates plots 510 and 512 of the kinetics data measured from two force-measuring shoes attached to the left hind foot of the horse and the right hind foot of the horse, respectively, while the horse was walking along a straight line. FIG. 5C illustrates plots 514 and 516 of the kinetics data measured from two force-measuring shoe attached to the left hind foot of the horse and the right hind foot of the horse, respectively, while the horse was trotting along a straight line.

[0047] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an example process 600 that may be performed by the application 404 to receive and analyze kinetics data according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Although the example process described herein is directed to a real-time process in which gait analysis is performed as the horse is moving, other embodiment contemplate that the process described below may also be performed on stored kinetics data, such as that previously obtained from the horse 106 at an earlier point in time. Initially, electrical power (e.g., battery power, line power, etc.) to the force-measuring devices and computing device is applied, and the application 404 is started on the computing device.

[0048] In step 602, the application 404 receives trial data from the user interface 410. The trial data may include any type associated with the gait analysis to be conducted, such as the date in which the analysis is conducted, type of animal (e.g., species, breed, gender, age), the name or identity of the animal, a case number to be associated with the analysis, any special treatments that have been previously applied to the animal, and the like.

[0049] In step 604, the application 404 obtains kinetics data from the sensors. In one embodiment, the kinetics data is received via a wireless link in which a transmitter 110 that is mounted on the shoes 102 transmits the kinetics data to a receiver 114 coupled to the computing device 112.

[0050] In step 606, the application 404 identifies gait segments having a minimum number of strides, for example, at least six or more strides. Ensuring that a minimum number of strides are obtained may, in some cases, enhance the accuracy of the gait analysis by ensuring that measurements are recorded as the animal is moving at a steady pace and not merely transitioning from one speed to another. In one embodiment, the application 404 may generate a user interface for receiving the desired minimum number of strides from a user.

[0051] In step 608, the application 404 filters the kinetics data according to one or more criteria. For example, the application 404 may employ a curve fitting algorithm to filter noise from the kinetics data measurements, such as those values that may be indicative of spurious noise introduced into the system. As another example, the application 404 may use certain filtering mechanisms, such as a high pass filter, a band pass filter, or a low pass filter, such as a moving average algorithm to filter noise from the kinetics data measurements.

[0052] In step 610, the application 404 identifies certain gait characteristics of the animal from the filtered kinetics data. In one embodiment, the application 404 identifies a peak force and/or an impulse force from the kinetics data. The peak force represents a relative maximum exerted on the sensors during the stride, while the impulse force represents the area under the force curve during each of the strides.

[0053] In step 612, the application 404 discards outlier stride information from the kinetics data. For example, the application 404 may determine a relative median of the gait variable of interest and discard the stride information that exceeds a specified portion of the gait characteristics (e.g., data from strides outside the interquartile range).

[0054] In step 614, the application 404 determines the type of gait (e.g., walk, trot, pace, left lead canter, right lead canter, left lead gallop, right lead gallop, etc.) from the gait characteristics obtained in step 610. For example, the application 404 may determine the type of gait by calculating a number of beats-per-stride. As another example, the application 404 may determine the type of gait according to a relative timing of the strides of each foot.

[0055] In step 616, the application 404 classifies the gait of the animal as either symmetric or asymmetric, and calculates the number of beats per stride. For example, the application 404 may compare temporal gait characteristics such as timing of foot falls and duration of stance phase for each foot of each pair of feet (i.e., front or hind feet) of the animal and classify the gait as symmetric when temporal gait characteristics are within a specified level (e.g., 95 percent) while classifying the gait as asymmetric when the critical level is not reached.

[0056] In step 618, the application 404 determines which limb is exhibiting lameness when the load on a pair of limbs (i.e., front or hind limbs) has been determined to be asymmetric. For example, if the gait has been determined to be symmetric, the application 404 may determine which limb received the smallest load during each stride. If the gait has been classified as asymmetric, the application 404 may determine which limb received an abnormally reduced load after comparing data obtained when the animal was moving on the left lead with data obtained when the animal was moving on the right lead.

[0057] In step 620, the application 404 displays the results of the gait analysis on the display 408. For example, the application 404 may display the type of gait during data collection and whether or not the load on the limbs was asymmetrical, and if so, display which limb(s) is(are) exhibiting the lameness. Additionally, the application 404 may display the kinetics data (e.g., raw data) obtained from each foot on the display 408 in graphical form, such as that shown above with respect to FIGS. 5A - 5C and/or may summarize the results for each variable (e.g., median [range] peak force on each part of each foot, median [range] peak force on each limb, median [range] left to right difference in peak force for each limb pair [front and hind limbs]). In one embodiment, the application 404 may generate a report, such as a file or document that can be stored in the memory 406 or printed on paper, which indicates the results of the gait analysis of the animal for view by the user.

[0058] The previously described process may be conducted repeatedly to perform further gait analysis of the animal or other animals. Nevertheless, when use of the application 404 is no longer needed or desired, the process ends.

[0059] The process described above may be embodied in other specific forms without deviating from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. For example, although the example process described above is performed in real-time as the animal is moving, other embodiments contemplate that the aforedescribed process may also be conducted using stored kinetics data (e.g., kinetics data measurements that have been obtained and stored in the memory 406 at an earlier point in time). As another example, the application 404 may perform additional, fewer, or different operations than those operations as described in the present example process.

[0060] FIG. 7 illustrates an example process showing how the computing device 112 acquires kinetics data from the sensors according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Generally speaking, the example process of FIG. 7 describes a sequence of processing steps that may be conducted between the electrical circuit 306 and the application 404 configured in the computing device 112 for transferring kinetics data from the force-measuring devices to the application 404.

[0061] In step 702, the application 404 is started, and the force-measuring devices mounted on the limbs of the animal are activated. A communication signal is sent to the force-measuring devices to establish a communication connection in step 704. In step 706, the force-measuring devices receive the communication signal, and the communication connection is established. The force-measuring devices send power data, such as a battery voltage level, to the application 404 in step 708. In step 710, the application 404 receives the power data and determines whether there is sufficient power available for operating the force-measuring devices in step 712. If it is determined that sufficient power is not available in step 712, the application 404 displays a message to a user via the user interface 412 warning that there is low power (e.g., low battery) in step 714, and execution of the application 404 is stopped in step 716. However, if sufficient power is available in step 712, the application 404 displays an input form to a user via the user interface 412 requesting trial information in step 718. For example, the user can enter a date of the trial, a trial case number, and whether there have been any treatments previously applied to the animal.

[0062] In step 720, the application 404 sends a start command to the force- measuring devices to begin collecting and transmitting kinetics data. In step 722, the force-measuring devices determine whether the start command signal has been received. If the start command signal has not been received in step 722, the force- measuring devices continue to monitor for the start command signal. If the start command signal has been received in step 722, the force-measuring devices convert analog data (e.g., kinetics data) to digital data in step 724. In step 726, the force- measuring devices send the digital data to the application 404. The application 404 begins receiving the digital data in step 728. In step 730, the application 404 displays data values to the user via a user interface 410 in near real time and stores the data values in the memory 406. According to one aspect, the data is stored in the memory as a separate file for each animal from which data is being acquired.

[0063] The user can use the user interface 410 to generate a stop command to send to the force-measuring devices to stop collecting and transmitting data in step 732. If the user does not generate a stop command in step 732, the application 404 continues to display data values to the user via the user interface 410 in near real time. If the user generates a stop command in step 732, the application 404 sends the stop command to the force-measuring devices in step 734.

[0064] In step 736, the force-measuring devices determine whether a stop command signal has been received. If the stop command signal has not been received in step 736, the force-measuring devices continue to monitor for the stop command signal. If the stop command signal has been received in step 736, the force-measuring devices stop collecting and transmitting the data and wait for the next a communication signal to be received in step 706. Thereafter, the process ends.

[0065] The process described above may be embodied in other specific forms without deviating from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. For example, the application 404 may perform additional, fewer, or different operations than those operations as described in the present example process.

[0066] Figure 8 illustrates an example computing system 800 that may implement various systems, such as the control circuit 118, and methods discussed herein, such as process 600. A general purpose computer system 800 is capable of executing a computer program product to execute a computer process. Data and program files may be input to the computer system 800, which reads the files and executes the programs therein such as the application 504. Some of the elements of a general purpose computer system 800 are shown in Figure 8 wherein a processor 802 is shown having an input/output (I/O) section 804, a central processing unit (CPU) 806, and a memory section 808. There may be one or more processors 802, such that the processor 802 of the computer system 800 comprises a single central-processing unit 806, or a plurality of processing units, commonly referred to as a parallel processing environment. The computer system 800 may be a conventional computer, a server, a distributed computer, or any other type of computer, such as one or more external computers made available via a cloud computing architecture. The presently described technology is optionally implemented in software devices loaded in memory 808, stored on a configured DVD/CD-ROM 810 or storage unit 812, and/or communicated via a wired or wireless network link 814, thereby transforming the computer system 800 in Figure 8 to a special purpose machine for implementing the described operations.

[0067] The memory section 808 may be volatile media, nonvolatile media, removable media, non-removable media, and/or other media or mediums that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computing device. For example, the memory section 808 may include non-transitory computer storage media and communication media. Non-transitory computer storage media further may include volatile, nonvolatile, removable, and/or non-removable media implemented in a method or technology for the storage (and retrieval) of information, such as computer/machine-readable/executable instructions, data and data structures, engines, program modules, and/or other data. Communication media may, for example, embody computer/machine-readable/executable, data structures, program modules, algorithms, and/or other data. The communication media may also include an information delivery technology. The communication media may include wired and/or wireless connections and technologies and be used to transmit and/or receive wired and/or wireless communications.

[0068] The I/O section 804 is connected to one or more user-interface devices (e.g., a keyboard 816 and a display unit 818), a disc storage unit 812, and a disc drive unit 820. Generally, the disc drive unit 820 is a DVD/CD-ROM drive unit capable of reading the DVD/CD-ROM medium 810, which typically contains programs and data 822. Computer program products containing mechanisms to effectuate the systems and methods in accordance with the presently described technology may reside in the memory section 808, on a disc storage unit 812, on the DVD/CD-ROM medium 810 of the computer system 800, or on external storage devices made available via a cloud computing architecture with such computer program products, including one or more database management products, web server products, application server products, and/or other additional software components.

Alternatively, a disc drive unit 820 may be replaced or supplemented by a floppy drive unit, a tape drive unit, or other storage medium drive unit. The network adapter 824 is capable of connecting the computer system 800 to a network via the network link 814, through which the computer system can receive instructions and data.

Examples of such systems include personal computers, Intel or PowerPC-based computing systems, AMD-based computing systems, ARM-based computing systems, and other systems running a Windows-based, a UNIX-based, a mobile operating system, or other operating system. It should be understood that computing systems may also embody devices such as mobile phones, tablets or slates, multimedia consoles, gaming consoles, set top boxes, and the like.

[0069] When used in a LAN-networking environment, the computer system 800 is connected (by wired connection and/or wirelessly) to a local network through the network interface or adapter 824, which is one type of communications device. When used in a WAN-networking environment, the computer system 800 typically includes a modem, a network adapter, or any other type of communications device for establishing communications over the wide area network. In a networked

environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer system 800 or portions thereof, may be stored in a remote memory storage device. It is appreciated that the network connections shown are examples of communications devices for and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.

[0070] In an example implementation, source code executed by the control circuit 118, a plurality of internal and external databases are stored in memory of the control circuit 118 or other storage systems, such as the disk storage unit 812 or the DVD/CD-ROM medium 810, and/or other external storage devices made available and accessible via a network architecture. The source code executed by the control circuit 118 may be embodied by instructions stored on such storage systems and executed by the processor 802.

[0071] Some or all of the operations described herein may be performed by the processor 802, which is hardware. Further, local computing systems, remote data sources and/or services, and other associated logic represent firmware, hardware, and/or software configured to control operations the system 100 and/or other components. Such services may be implemented using a general purpose computer and specialized software (such as a server executing service software), a special purpose computing system and specialized software (such as a mobile device or network appliance executing service software), or other computing configurations. In addition, one or more functionalities disclosed herein may be generated by the processor 802 and a user may interact with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) using one or more user-interface devices (e.g., the keyboard 816, the display unit 818, and the user devices 804) with some of the data in use directly coming from online sources and data stores. The system set forth in Figure 8 is but one possible example of a computer system that may employ or be configured in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. [0072] In the present disclosure, the methods disclosed may be implemented as sets of instructions or software readable by a device. Further, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed are instances of example approaches. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the method can be rearranged while remaining within the disclosed subject matter. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not necessarily meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

[0073] The described disclosure may be provided as a computer program product, or software, that may include a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the present disclosure. A non-transitory machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form (e.g., software, processing application) readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). The non-transitory machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, magnetic storage medium (e.g., floppy diskette), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage medium, read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; or other types of medium suitable for storing electronic executable instructions.

[0074] The description above includes example systems, methods, techniques, instruction sequences, and/or computer program products that embody techniques of the present disclosure. However, it is understood that the described disclosure may be practiced without these specific details.

[0075] It is believed that the present disclosure and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components without departing from the disclosed subject matter or without sacrificing all of its material advantages. The form described is merely explanatory, and it is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes.

[0076] While the present disclosure has been described with reference to various embodiments, it will be understood that these embodiments are illustrative and that the scope of the disclosure is not limited to them. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. More generally, embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure have been described in the context of particular implementations. Functionality may be separated or combined in blocks differently in various embodiments of the disclosure or described with different terminology. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements may fall within the scope of the disclosure as defined in the claims that follow.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. An animal gait analysis system comprising:

a computing system comprising at least one processor and at least one memory to store instructions that are executed by at least one processor to:

wirelessly receive from a transmitter mounted on an animal, kinetics data associated with one or more forces exerted by one or more limbs of the animal on a ground, the transmitter obtaining a force level from a force-measuring sensor mounted on each of the limbs; and processing the received kinetics data to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal.

2. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, wherein the gait characteristic comprises a lameness characteristic of the animal.

3. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, wherein the one or more feet comprise at least one of two front feet of the animal, two hind feet of the animal, or four feet of the animal.

4. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, further comprising one or more force-measuring devices configured to mount the one or more sensors to the one or more limbs of the animal.

5. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 4, further comprising a processing circuit configured on each of the one or more force-measuring devices to process at least a portion of the kinetics data prior to being transmitted to the computing device.

6. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executed to filter noise from the received kinetics data using at least one of a low- pass filter, a high-pass filter, and a band-pass filter.

7. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 6, wherein the instructions are further executed to filter noise from the received kinetics data using a moving average filter.

8. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executed to process the received kinetics data by determining at least one of a peak force, an impulse, and a total force per unit time from the kinetics data.

9. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executed to process the received kinetics data by removing outlier stride information from the kinetics data.

10. The animal gait analysis system of Claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executed to process the received kinetics data to determine a gait of the animal, the gait comprising at least one of a walking gait, an ambling gait, a trotting gait, a left lead canter, a right lead canter, a left lead gallop, and a right lead gallop.

11. An animal gait analysis method comprising:

wirelessly receiving, by at least one processor, kinetics data associated with one or more forces exerted by one or more limbs of the animal on a ground from a transmitter mounted on the animal, the transmitter obtaining a force level from a force-measuring sensor mounted on each of the one or more limbs; and

processing, by the processor, the received kinetics data to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal.

12. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 11, further comprising processing the received kinetics data to determine a lameness characteristic of the animal.

13. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 11, further comprising processing the kinetics data obtained from at least one of two front limbs of the animal, two hind limbs of the animal, or four limbs of the animal.

14. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 11, further comprising mounting one or more force-measuring devices on the one or more limbs of the animal, the sensors configured in the one or more force-measuring devices.

15. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 14, further comprising processing at least a portion of the kinetics data prior to being transmitted to the computing device.

16. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 11, further comprising filtering noise from the received kinetics data using at least one of a low-pass filter, a high-pass filter, and a band-pass filter.

17. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 16, further comprising filtering noise from the received kinetics data using a moving average filter.

18. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 11, further comprising processing the received kinetics data by determining at least one of a peak force, an impulse, and a total force per unit time from the kinetics data.

19. The animal gait analysis method of Claim 11, further comprising processing the received kinetics data by removing outlier stride information from the kinetics data.

20. A gait analysis system comprising:

wirelessly receive, from a transmitter mounted on a horse, kinetics data associated with one or more forces exerted by four feet of the horse on a ground, the transmitter obtaining the one or more forces using three force-measuring sensors mounted on each of the feet of the horse;

processing the received kinetics data using one or more filters to generate processed kinetics data;

determine a gait of the horse, the gait comprising at least one of a walking gait, an ambling gait, a trotting gait, a left lead canter, a right lead canter, a left lead gallop, and a right lead gallop; and

analyzing the processed kinetics data to determine a lameness characteristic of the horse.

21. An animal gait analysis apparatus comprising:

a force measuring device to measure one or more forces exerted by a limb of an animal using one or more force measuring sensors, the force measuring device physically coupling the force measuring sensors to the limb of the animal,

wherein the one or more forces measured by each force measuring sensor is

processed to analyze a gait characteristic of the animal.

22. The animal gait analysis apparatus of Claim 21, further comprising:

a transmitter electrically coupled to the force measuring sensors and configured to:

receive kinetics data associated with the one or more forces from the force measuring sensors; and

wirelessly transmit the kinetics data to a processing circuit to analyze the gait characteristic of the animal.

23. The animal gait analysis apparatus of Claim 22, further comprising a processing circuit on each of the one or more force-measuring devices to process at least a portion of the kinetics data prior to being transmitted to the processing circuit.

24. The animal gait analysis apparatus of Claim 21, wherein the limb comprises a foot of the animal.

25. The animal gait analysis apparatus of Claim 21, wherein the animal comprises at least one of a horse, a mule, a donkey, a cow, a camel, an ox, and a human.

26. The animal gait analysis apparatuses of Claim 21 further comprising a plurality of animal gait analysis apparatuses that are configured to be mounted on a corresponding plurality of the limbs of the animal.

27. The animal gait analysis apparatus of Claim 26, wherein the plurality of the limbs of the animal comprise at least one of two front feet of the animal, two hind feet of the animal, or four feet of the animal.