FBGs Based System for Muscle Effort Monitoring in Wheelchair Users

Numerous studies have been carried out aiming to improve wheelchair users' quality of life. Based on the muscle effort evaluation during their daily activities, wheelchair users can adopt different postures to reduce their effort. However, most of the current solutions for muscle effort assessm...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE sensors journal 2022-07, Vol.22 (13), p.12886-12893
Main Authors: Rocha, Matilde, Tavares, Catia, Nepomuceno, Catarina, Antunes, Paulo Fernando da Costa, de Fatima Domingues, Maria, Alberto, Nelia Jordao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bragg gratings
Deformation
Epoxy resins
Fiber gratings
Locomotion
Monitoring
Muscle effort
Muscles
Muscular fatigue
optical fiber Bragg gratings
physical rehabilitation
Quality of life
Sensors
Strain
Temperature sensors
upper limbs
wheelchair user
Wheelchairs
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Numerous studies have been carried out aiming to improve wheelchair users' quality of life. Based on the muscle effort evaluation during their daily activities, wheelchair users can adopt different postures to reduce their effort. However, most of the current solutions for muscle effort assessment are affected by uncontrolled factors. Here, a solution immune to these factors is proposed. The system, based on six fiber Bragg gratings embedded in epoxy resin, was distributed on both arms of six wheelchair users' volunteers. The arms' muscle effort was estimated through the fiber Bragg grating's wavelength shift, which was related with the epoxy resin deformation during some of the wheelchair users' daily movements, such as horizontal plane locomotion (using different wheelchair hand movement patterns), ramp up and down, and dips. The slightest hand clearance, in relation to the rim (pattern A), implies smaller sensor deformations and, therefore, a lower effort. Comparing to pattern A, volunteer 5 increased 17% its effort in pattern B and 27% in pattern D, in the left bicep sensor. Also, ramp displacements require higher muscle effort, in relation to the horizontal plane. Of all the exercises performed, dips involve the most intense arms' muscle effort (volunteer 5 had an 82% deformation increase, comparing to pattern A, in the left bicep sensor). The developed system revealed promising results, providing deeper knowledge about the muscle effort during daily movements. Based on this information they can adopt different postures, resulting in minor muscle fatigue, and consequently an improvement of their quality of life.
ISSN:1530-437X
1558-1748
DOI:10.1109/JSEN.2022.3177889