POF Smart Carpet: A Multiplexed Polymer Optical Fiber-Embedded Smart Carpet for Gait Analysis

This paper presents the development of a smart carpet based on polymer optical fiber (POF) for ground reaction force (GRF) and spatio-temporal gait parameter assessment. The proposed carpet has 20 intensity variation-based sensors on one fiber with two photodetectors for acquisition, each one for th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2019-07, Vol.19 (15), p.3356
Main Authors: Avellar, Leticia M, Leal-Junior, Arnaldo G, Diaz, Camilo A R, Marques, Carlos, Frizera, Anselmo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Gait
gait analysis
Gait recognition
ground reaction force
Human mechanics
Kinematics
Kinetics
Lasers
Light
Light emitting diodes
Light sources
Motion capture
Multiplexing
Optical fibers
Polyethylene
polymer optical fiber sensors
Polymers
Polymethyl methacrylate
Pressure distribution
Sensors
smart textile
spatio-temporal gait parameters
Strain gauges
Textiles
Walking
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Summary:This paper presents the development of a smart carpet based on polymer optical fiber (POF) for ground reaction force (GRF) and spatio-temporal gait parameter assessment. The proposed carpet has 20 intensity variation-based sensors on one fiber with two photodetectors for acquisition, each one for the response of 10 closer sensors. The used multiplexing technique is based on side-coupling between the light sources and POF lateral sections in which one light-emitting diode (LED) is activated at a time, sequentially. Three tests were performed, two for sensor characterization and one for validation of the smart carpet, where the first test consisted of the application of calibrated weights on the top of each sensor for force characterization. In the second test, the foot was positioned on predefined points distributed on the carpet, where a mean relative error of 2.9% was obtained. Results of the walking tests on the proposed POF-embedded smart carpet showed the possibility of estimating the GRF and spatio-temporal gait parameters (step and stride lengths, cadence, and stance duration). The obtained results make possible the identification of gait events (stance and swing phases) as well as the stance duration and double support periods. The proposed carpet is a low-cost and reliable tool for gait analysis in different applications.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s19153356