Optically Instrumented Insole for Gait Plantar and Shear Force Monitoring

Catia Tavares; Flavia Leite; Maria De Fatima Domingues; Tiago Paixao; Nelia Alberto; Antonio Ramos; Hugo Silva; Paulo Fernando Da Costa Antunes

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3115472

IEEE Access (Jan 2021)

Optically Instrumented Insole for Gait Plantar and Shear Force Monitoring

Catia Tavares,
Flavia Leite,
Maria De Fatima Domingues,
Tiago Paixao,
Nelia Alberto,
Antonio Ramos,
Hugo Silva,
Paulo Fernando Da Costa Antunes

Affiliations

Catia Tavares: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
Flavia Leite: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
Maria De Fatima Domingues: ORCiD; Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
Tiago Paixao: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
Nelia Alberto: ORCiD; Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
Antonio Ramos: ORCiD; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
Hugo Silva: ORCiD; Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa (IST-UL), Lisbon, Portugal
Paulo Fernando Da Costa Antunes: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3115472
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 9
pp. 132480 – 132490

Abstract

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In this work, a fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) based sensing insole, capable of simultaneously measure plantar force (PF) and shear force (SF) is proposed. The insole has four measuring points, strategically located for a full gait analysis. Each sensing point contains a sensor-cell which consists of a polylactic acid (PLA) structure, covered by an epoxy resin layer, and crossed by one optical fiber with two FBGs, FBG1 and FBG2, respectively. Due to the specific design of the system, the FBG1 is sensitive to both forces (with higher sensitivity to the PF), while the FBG2 is designed to detect only the SF. The instrumented insole was tested during static and gait exercises, and the results, obtained for the PF and SF monitoring, were according to those theoretically expected.

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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