Design and test of a soft plantar force measurement system for gait detection

Sensors (Basel). 2012 Dec 3;12(12):16628-40. doi: 10.3390/s121216628.

Abstract

This work describes a plantar force measurement system. The MEMS pressure sensor, as the key sensing element, is designed, fabricated and embedded into a flexible silicon oil-filled bladder made of silicon rubber to constitute a single sensing unit. A conditioning circuit is designed for signal processing and data acquisition. The characteristics of the plantar force sensing unit are investigated by both static and dynamic tests. A comparison of characteristics between the proposed plantar force sensing unit and a commercial flexible force sensor is presented. A practical experiment of plantar force measurement has been carried out to validate the system. The results demonstrate that the proposed measurement system has a potential for success in the application of plantar force measurement during normal gait.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Biosensing Techniques*
  • Gait / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems / instrumentation*
  • Pressure
  • Silicon / chemistry

Substances

  • Silicon