This study presents data on the application of two different processing techniques of foot parameters and the comparison of their validity and reliability in adults. Twenty-four healthy participants volunteered took part in the study. Three digital scans were obtained from each participant by one experienced investigator. The foot parameters were: Clarke index, 'KY' index of Sztriter-Godunov, heel angle and Wejsflog index. The parameters were identified into two ways: manually using software SolidWorks and by a new computer-aided system. The results of the Spearman's rank correlation suggest a strong positive relationship between parameters obtained from the computer-aided system and manually counted (> 0.9). The current study suggests that computer-aided system is a practical tool for foot type assessment in adults and could be recommended for both research and clinical applications.
Abstract.BACKGROUND: Gait analysis is a useful tool medical staff use to support clinical decision making. There is still an urgent need to develop low-cost and unobtrusive mobile health monitoring systems. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was twofold. Firstly, a wearable sensor system composed of plantar pressure insoles and wearable sensors for joint angle measurement was developed. Secondly, the accuracy of the system in the measurement of ground reaction forces and joint moments was examined. METHODS: The measurements included joint angles and plantar pressure distribution. To validate the wearable sensor system and examine the effectiveness of the proposed method for gait analysis, an experimental study on ten volunteer subjects was conducted. The accuracy of measurement of ground reaction forces and joint moments was validated against the results obtained from a reference motion capture system. RESULTS: Ground reaction forces and joint moments measured by the wearable sensor system showed a root mean square error of 1% for min. GRF and 27.3% for knee extension moment. The correlation coefficient was over 0.9, in comparison with the stationary motion capture system. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the wearable sensor system could be recommended both for research and clinical applications outside a typical gait laboratory.
In the article a construction of a laboratory station for determination of angles in three kinematic pairs of human lower limbs exoskeleton is described. The constructed exoskeleton is supposed to support human lower limbs only on plane vertical to ground. In article the results of measurement of movement parameters of walking human lower limbs obtained using the measuring station. Measurement of angular displacement on the station is realized using six angular displacement absolute transducers. The station is also one of the components contained in lower limb exoskeleton being constructed. The measuring construction will be used to identify actuating systems during exoskeleton construction phase.
Vibration monitoring provides a good-quality source of information about the health condition of machines, and it is often based on the use of accelerometers. This article focuses on the use of accelerometer sensors in fabricating a low-cost system for monitoring vibrations in agricultural machines, such as rotary tedders. The aim of the study is to provide useful data on equipment health for improving the durability of such machinery. The electronic prototype, based on the low-cost AVR microcontroller ATmega128 with 10-bit ADC performing a 12-bit measurement, is able to acquire data from an accelerometer weighing up to 10 g. Three sensors were exposed to low accelerations with the use of an exciter, and their static characteristics were presented. Standard experimental tests were used to evaluate the constructed machine monitoring system. The self-contained prototype system was calibrated in a laboratory test rig, and sinusoidal and multisinusoidal excitations were used. Measurements in time and frequency domains were carried out. The amplitude characteristic of the preformed system differed by no more than 15% within a frequency range of 10 Hz–10 kHz, compared to the AVM4000 commercial product. Finally, the system was experimentally tested to measure acceleration at three characteristic points in a rotational tedder, i.e., the solid grease gearbox, the drive shaft bearing and the main frame. The RMS amplitude values of the shaft vibrations on the bearing in relation to the change in the drive shaft speed of two tedders of the same type were evaluated and compared. Additionally, the parameters of kurtosis and crest factor were compared to ascertain the bearing condition.
BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in developing in-shoe foot plantar pressure systems. Although such devices are not novel, devising insole devices for gait analysis is still an important issue. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to develop a new portable system for plantar pressure distribution measurement based on a three-axis accelerometer. METHODS: The portable system includes: PJRC Teensy 3.6 microcontroller with 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 microprocessor with a clock speed of 180 MHz; HC-11 radio modules (transmitter and receiver); a battery; a fixing band; pressure sensors; MPU-9150 inertial navigation module; and FFC tape. The pressure insole is leather-based and consists of seven layers. It is divided into 16 areas and the outcome of the system is data concerning plantar pressure distribution under foot during gait. The system was tested on 22 healthy volunteer subjects, and the data was compared with a commercially available system: Medilogic. RESULT: The SNR value for the proposed sensor is 28.27 dB. For a range of pressure of 30–100 N, the sensitivity is 0.0066 V/N while the linearity error is 0.05. The difference in plantar pressure from both the portable plantar pressure system and Medilogic is not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The proposed system could be recommended for research applications both inside and outside of a typical gait laboratory.
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