Correlations of falling signals between biped robots and humans with 3-axis accelerometers

Prevention of falling down is an important issue in aging society, so accurate measurement of falling down is also important. The signal of falling down is generally collected from a 3-axis accelerometer which is placed on an individual's chest. Then, the collected signals will be further analyzed to develop the algorithms for falling detections. Nevertheless, it is difficult to collect the signals when people fall down due to the reason that falls may cause serious injuries to the individuals. Hence, the individual may perform the falls in slow motions to prevent them having serious injuries. Therefore, this paper proposes a simulation system with a 3-axis accelerometer and a small size biped humanoid robot. A 3-axis accelerometer is placed on the chest of a biped humanoid robot to measure the falling signals. The signals collected from the individual are compared with the signals collected from a biped robot for evaluating the correlations of falling signals. The results of experiments showed that positive correlations appear between the biped robot and the human beings for typical falls. Therefore, the proposed approach would be helpful to provide useful sensor signals of falls for realistic falling down detections. ? 2011 IEEE.