Cargando…

Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements

This paper reports on a force plate (FP) using mechanical springs and noncontact distance sensors. The ground reaction force (GRF) is one of the factors for clarify biomechanics, and FPs are widely used to measure it. The sensor elements of conventional FPs are mainly strain gauges. Thus, the mechan...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kawasaki, Yuta, Ogawa, Ami, Takahashi, Hidetoshi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8587203/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34770412
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21217092
_version_ 1784598094182088704
author Kawasaki, Yuta
Ogawa, Ami
Takahashi, Hidetoshi
author_facet Kawasaki, Yuta
Ogawa, Ami
Takahashi, Hidetoshi
author_sort Kawasaki, Yuta
collection PubMed
description This paper reports on a force plate (FP) using mechanical springs and noncontact distance sensors. The ground reaction force (GRF) is one of the factors for clarify biomechanics, and FPs are widely used to measure it. The sensor elements of conventional FPs are mainly strain gauges. Thus, the mechanical properties of FP depend on the sensor element performance. If the FP performance must change, we must redesign the FP, including changing the sensor elements. Here, we proposed an FP that uses a measuring principle based on simple springs and noncontact sensors. The shape and performance of the proposed FP are expected to change easily. As a prototype device, we designed and fabricated an FP installed with 12 springs and four sensors for human walking. A planar coil and magnet were used as the sensor elements, and the sensor output was proportional to the vertical and horizontal displacements. The FP resonance frequency was 123 Hz, which was larger than the required specification. The calibration experiments showed that vertical and horizontal forces and moments could be measured independently. The FP’s resolutions were 1.9 N and 1.4 N in the anterior–posterior and vertical directions, respectively. Furthermore, the fabricated FP measured GRF similarly to the commercial FP when a human walked on the plate. These results suggest that the proposed method will be helpful for FPs with custom-made requirements.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8587203
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85872032021-11-13 Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements Kawasaki, Yuta Ogawa, Ami Takahashi, Hidetoshi Sensors (Basel) Article This paper reports on a force plate (FP) using mechanical springs and noncontact distance sensors. The ground reaction force (GRF) is one of the factors for clarify biomechanics, and FPs are widely used to measure it. The sensor elements of conventional FPs are mainly strain gauges. Thus, the mechanical properties of FP depend on the sensor element performance. If the FP performance must change, we must redesign the FP, including changing the sensor elements. Here, we proposed an FP that uses a measuring principle based on simple springs and noncontact sensors. The shape and performance of the proposed FP are expected to change easily. As a prototype device, we designed and fabricated an FP installed with 12 springs and four sensors for human walking. A planar coil and magnet were used as the sensor elements, and the sensor output was proportional to the vertical and horizontal displacements. The FP resonance frequency was 123 Hz, which was larger than the required specification. The calibration experiments showed that vertical and horizontal forces and moments could be measured independently. The FP’s resolutions were 1.9 N and 1.4 N in the anterior–posterior and vertical directions, respectively. Furthermore, the fabricated FP measured GRF similarly to the commercial FP when a human walked on the plate. These results suggest that the proposed method will be helpful for FPs with custom-made requirements. MDPI 2021-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8587203/ /pubmed/34770412 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21217092 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kawasaki, Yuta
Ogawa, Ami
Takahashi, Hidetoshi
Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements
title Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements
title_full Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements
title_fullStr Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements
title_full_unstemmed Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements
title_short Force Plate with Simple Mechanical Springs and Separated Noncontact Sensor Elements
title_sort force plate with simple mechanical springs and separated noncontact sensor elements
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8587203/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34770412
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21217092
work_keys_str_mv AT kawasakiyuta forceplatewithsimplemechanicalspringsandseparatednoncontactsensorelements
AT ogawaami forceplatewithsimplemechanicalspringsandseparatednoncontactsensorelements
AT takahashihidetoshi forceplatewithsimplemechanicalspringsandseparatednoncontactsensorelements