摘要：AbstractFear of falling (FoF) is a major health problem, especially in elders, which can lead to falls, injury, loss of independence, and premature needs of nursing and assistance. However, most of the studies have focused on the psychological aspect of the FoF and there is a significant lack of technological assistance and methodology to detect and eliminate the effects of this fear on maintaining balance. In this article, we propose a novel method to detect the FoF as a quantitative signal. In our proposed novel approach, fear is considered as an internal disturbance inside a Central Nervous System (CNS) that can affect the generated output torque to each joint of the psychical body. By assuming the human body in a quiet stance, as an inverted pendulum model, this disturbance signal is estimated by Moving Horizon Estimation (MHE). For this purpose, the body kinetics and kinematics measurements of forty-five subjects during upright stance trails, as well as the psychological FoF falls efficacy test, were collected and utilized for the estimation and validation of the results. The experimental results show that the subjects with FoF present a higher variation in the estimated signal. This method can sufficiently detect the FoF by the posturographic and motion data, which can be utilized on the future assistive devices for prevention and treatment of the FoF and falls.
关键词：KeywordsFear EstimationBiomedical SystemQuantification of physiological parameters for diagnosistreatment assessmentBalanceEstimation
