Gait pattern analysis of an Asian elephant

Abstract

Elephants have to maintain stability of a body weighing 2700 kg - 4500 kg in a wide range of unstructured terrain conditions. To achieve this, the dynamic walking control strategies of an elephant should be able to manage the large inertial forces working on the leg muscles. Therefore, understanding the gait patterns of an elephant can indicate the possible robust control strategies that an elephant may be adopting by exploiting its body dynamics and kinematics. This paper presents a simple method to analyze the gait patterns of an elephant using videos and snapshots. In the research, we have used three Asian elephants to capture videos and snapshots in order to obtain primary data. Finally, two outcomes were illustrated. Firstly, the ratios of body segments of the elephant were calculated using snapshots, and secondly, movements of the four limbs in the Sagittarius plane were measured and graphs were generated against time. Since the data used here were obtained from the images, errors can be occurred due to the scale of the image and measuring techniques. These errors were mitigated by carrying out appropriate error corrections.