A Data-Driven Approach for Fatigue Detection during Running Using Pedobarographic Measurements

Background. Detecting fatigue at the early stages of a run could aid training programs in making adjustments, thereby reducing the heightened risk of injuries from overuse. The study aimed to investigate the effects of running fatigue on plantar force distribution in the dominant and nondominant feet of amateur runners. Methods. Thirty amateur runners were recruited for this study. Bilateral time-series plantar forces were employed to facilitate automatic fatigue gait recognition using convolutional neural network (CNN) and CNN-based long short-term memory network (ConvLSTM) models. Plantar force data collection was conducted both before and after a running-induced fatigue protocol using a FootScan force plate. The Keras library in Python 3.8.8 was used to train and tune deep learning models. Results. The results demonstrated that more mid-forefoot and heel force occurs during bilateral plantar and less midfoot fore force occurs in the dominant limb after fatigue (p<0.001). The time of peak forces was significantly shortened at the midfoot and sum region of the nondominant foot, while it was delayed at the hallux region of the dominant foot (p<0.001). In addition, the ConvLSTM model showed higher performance (Accuracy = 0.867, Sensitivity = 0.874, and Specificity = 0.859) in detecting fatigue gait than CNN (Accuracy = 0.800, Sensitivity = 0.874, and Specificity = 0.718). Conclusions. The findings of this study could offer empirical data for evaluating risk factors linked to overuse injuries in a single limb, as well as facilitate early detection of fatigued gait.