Abstract
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Exercise-induced fatigue evolves from the initiation of physical work. Nonetheless, the
development of an objective method for detecting fatigue based on variation in ambulatory
motion parameters measured during exercise is yet to be explored. In this study, the
ambulatory motion parameters consisting of kinematic parameters of 23 body segments
in addition to muscle tissue oxygen saturation (SmO2), heart rate, and vertical work of
eight healthy male subjects during stair climbing tests (SCT) were measured before and
after a fatigue protocol utilizing Wingate cycling test. The impacts of fatigue on ambulatory
motion and postural behaviors were analyzed using an unsupervised machine learning
method classifying angular joint motions. The average of total distance traveled by
subjects and the overall body postural behavior showed about 25% decline and 90% variation
after fatigue protocol, respectively. Also, higher relative desaturation in SCT1
64.0 (1.1) compared SCT2 54.8 (1.1) was measured. Measurements of differences in
motion postural states and metabolic indexes after exercises-induced fatigue proved a
strong correlation which validates the advantages of inertial motion analysis method for
fatigue assessment.