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A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis

Gait analysis is a systematic study of human locomotion, which can be utilized in various applications, such as rehabilitation, clinical diagnostics and sports activities. The various limitations such as cost, non-portability, long setup time, post-processing time etc., of the current gait analysis...

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Autores principales: Tahir, Anas M., Chowdhury, Muhammad E. H., Khandakar, Amith, Al-Hamouz, Sara, Abdalla, Merna, Awadallah, Sara, Reaz, Mamun Bin Ibne, Al-Emadi, Nasser
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7070759/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32053914
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20040957
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author Tahir, Anas M.
Chowdhury, Muhammad E. H.
Khandakar, Amith
Al-Hamouz, Sara
Abdalla, Merna
Awadallah, Sara
Reaz, Mamun Bin Ibne
Al-Emadi, Nasser
author_facet Tahir, Anas M.
Chowdhury, Muhammad E. H.
Khandakar, Amith
Al-Hamouz, Sara
Abdalla, Merna
Awadallah, Sara
Reaz, Mamun Bin Ibne
Al-Emadi, Nasser
author_sort Tahir, Anas M.
collection PubMed
description Gait analysis is a systematic study of human locomotion, which can be utilized in various applications, such as rehabilitation, clinical diagnostics and sports activities. The various limitations such as cost, non-portability, long setup time, post-processing time etc., of the current gait analysis techniques have made them unfeasible for individual use. This led to an increase in research interest in developing smart insoles where wearable sensors can be employed to detect vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) and other gait variables. Smart insoles are flexible, portable and comfortable for gait analysis, and can monitor plantar pressure frequently through embedded sensors that convert the applied pressure to an electrical signal that can be displayed and analyzed further. Several research teams are still working to improve the insoles’ features such as size, sensitivity of insoles sensors, durability, and the intelligence of insoles to monitor and control subjects’ gait by detecting various complications providing recommendation to enhance walking performance. Even though systematic sensor calibration approaches have been followed by different teams to calibrate insoles’ sensor, expensive calibration devices were used for calibration such as universal testing machines or infrared motion capture cameras equipped in motion analysis labs. This paper provides a systematic design and characterization procedure for three different pressure sensors: force-sensitive resistors (FSRs), ceramic piezoelectric sensors, and flexible piezoelectric sensors that can be used for detecting vGRF using a smart insole. A simple calibration method based on a load cell is presented as an alternative to the expensive calibration techniques. In addition, to evaluate the performance of the different sensors as a component for the smart insole, the acquired vGRF from different insoles were used to compare them. The results showed that the FSR is the most effective sensor among the three sensors for smart insole applications, whereas the piezoelectric sensors can be utilized in detecting the start and end of the gait cycle. This study will be useful for any research group in replicating the design of a customized smart insole for gait analysis.
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spelling pubmed-70707592020-03-19 A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis Tahir, Anas M. Chowdhury, Muhammad E. H. Khandakar, Amith Al-Hamouz, Sara Abdalla, Merna Awadallah, Sara Reaz, Mamun Bin Ibne Al-Emadi, Nasser Sensors (Basel) Article Gait analysis is a systematic study of human locomotion, which can be utilized in various applications, such as rehabilitation, clinical diagnostics and sports activities. The various limitations such as cost, non-portability, long setup time, post-processing time etc., of the current gait analysis techniques have made them unfeasible for individual use. This led to an increase in research interest in developing smart insoles where wearable sensors can be employed to detect vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) and other gait variables. Smart insoles are flexible, portable and comfortable for gait analysis, and can monitor plantar pressure frequently through embedded sensors that convert the applied pressure to an electrical signal that can be displayed and analyzed further. Several research teams are still working to improve the insoles’ features such as size, sensitivity of insoles sensors, durability, and the intelligence of insoles to monitor and control subjects’ gait by detecting various complications providing recommendation to enhance walking performance. Even though systematic sensor calibration approaches have been followed by different teams to calibrate insoles’ sensor, expensive calibration devices were used for calibration such as universal testing machines or infrared motion capture cameras equipped in motion analysis labs. This paper provides a systematic design and characterization procedure for three different pressure sensors: force-sensitive resistors (FSRs), ceramic piezoelectric sensors, and flexible piezoelectric sensors that can be used for detecting vGRF using a smart insole. A simple calibration method based on a load cell is presented as an alternative to the expensive calibration techniques. In addition, to evaluate the performance of the different sensors as a component for the smart insole, the acquired vGRF from different insoles were used to compare them. The results showed that the FSR is the most effective sensor among the three sensors for smart insole applications, whereas the piezoelectric sensors can be utilized in detecting the start and end of the gait cycle. This study will be useful for any research group in replicating the design of a customized smart insole for gait analysis. MDPI 2020-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7070759/ /pubmed/32053914 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20040957 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tahir, Anas M.
Chowdhury, Muhammad E. H.
Khandakar, Amith
Al-Hamouz, Sara
Abdalla, Merna
Awadallah, Sara
Reaz, Mamun Bin Ibne
Al-Emadi, Nasser
A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis
title A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis
title_full A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis
title_fullStr A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis
title_full_unstemmed A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis
title_short A Systematic Approach to the Design and Characterization of a Smart Insole for Detecting Vertical Ground Reaction Force (vGRF) in Gait Analysis
title_sort systematic approach to the design and characterization of a smart insole for detecting vertical ground reaction force (vgrf) in gait analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7070759/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32053914
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20040957
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