Researchers from the University of Florida received the Best Paper Runner-up Award at the 9th IEEE International Conference on Smart Internet of Things (SmartIoT 2025) for their paper, “A Machine Learning Approach for Real-time Gait Analysis.” The multidisciplinary team includes Ankan Ghosh, Sumaiya Afroz Mila, Zongwei Zhen, Swarup Bhunia, Sandip Ray (Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering), and Cong Chen (Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine).
Clinical gait analysis is a non-invasive method used to identify abnormalities in human walking patterns. This work introduces the potential to shift clinical gait assessments from specialized labs to the comfort of patients’ homes, marking a major step in healthcare accessibility.
“This paper tries to solve a major limitation of current clinical gait analysis that is, it requires expensive, lab-bound equipment like force plates, EMG sensors, motion capture systems, and can only be done in specialized orthopedic settings,” explained Ghosh, a graduate student researcher.
To address these limitations, the team developed a novel method using stick-and-peel wearable sensors, known as pasteables, and an advanced machine learning (ML) framework. Their approach enables continuous, at-home gait monitoring by collecting plantar pressure data via the pasteables. Sensory data is then analyzed through the ML model to accurately detect gait abnormalities. To guide the hardware design, they devised an optimal sensor placement strategy using Shapley value analysis. By using simulation-driven design and publicly available datasets to identify various monitoring parameters, they bypassed the need for large-scale user studies in the early development stage.
This approach makes clinical gait monitoring much more accessible and paves the way for broader applications in continuous health monitoring using wearable IoT devices.
The 9th IEEE International Conference on Smart Internet of Things (SmartIoT 2025) was held on November 17-20, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. The primary goal of SmartIoT 2025 is to exchange, share and discuss the latest research, theories and applications for Smart Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems.