Development and Evaluation of a Slip Detection Algorithm for Walking on Level and Inclined Ice Surfaces

Slip-resistant footwear can prevent fall-related injuries on icy surfaces. Winter footwear slip resistance can be measured by the Maximum Achievable Angle (MAA) test, which measures the steepest ice-covered incline that participants can walk up and down without experiencing a slip. However, the MAA test requires the use of a human observer to detect slips, which increases the variability of the test. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate an automated slip detection algorithm for walking on level and inclined ice surfaces to be used with the MAA test to replace the need for human observers. Kinematic data were collected from nine healthy young adults walking up and down on ice surfaces in a range from 0° to 12° using an optical motion capture system. Our algorithm segmented these data into steps and extracted features as inputs to two linear support vector machine classifiers. The two classifiers were trained, optimized, and validated to classify toe slips and heel slips, respectively. A total of approximately 11,000 steps from 9 healthy participants were collected, which included approximately 4700 slips. Our algorithm was able to detect slips with an overall F(1) score of 90.1%. In addition, the algorithm was able to accurately classify backward toe slips, forward toe slips, backward heel slips, and forward heel slips with F(1) scores of 97.3%, 54.5%, 80.9%, and 86.5%, respectively.