Self-Powered Smart Insole for Monitoring Human Gait Signals

Mycelium bound composites are promising materials for a diverse range of applications including wearables and building elements. Their functionality surpasses some of the capabilities of traditionally passive materials, such as synthetic fibres, reconstituted cellulose fibres and natural fibres. Thereby, creating novel propositions including augmented functionality (sensory) and aesthetic (personal fashion). Biomaterials can offer multiple modal sensing capability such as mechanical loading (compressive and tensile) and moisture content. To assess the sensing potential of fungal insoles we undertook laboratory experiments on electrical response of bespoke insoles made from capillary matting colonised with oyster fungi \textit{Pleurotus ostreatus} to compressive stress which mimics human loading when standing and walking. We have shown changes in electrical activity with compressive loading. The results advance the development of intelligent sensing insoles which are a building block towards more generic reactive fungal wearables. Using FitzhHugh-Nagumo model we numerically illustrated how excitation wave-fronts behave in a mycelium network colonising an insole and shown that it may be possible to discern pressure points from the mycelium electrical activity.

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“…Direct conversion of mechanical energy into electricity offers potential as power source for various systems [28, 7, 32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reactive fungal insoles

Nikolaidou

Phllips

Tsompanas

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Wei Wang et al presented self-powered insoles integrated with piezoelectric poly vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanogenerators (NGs) and manufactured using 3D flatbed knitwear without seams for monitoring user gait and scavenging the walking energy [ 38 ]. The NGs were made by growing aluminum electrodes on the PVDF film.…”

Section: An Overview Of Smart Insoles For Plantar Pressure Detection and Gait Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Schematic diagram of the self-powered intelligent insole detailing the fabric’s knitted motif ( a ) and the related prototype ( b ) Adapted from [ 38 ]. …”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Self-Powered Piezo-Resistive Smart Insole Equipped with Low-Power BLE Connectivity for Remote Gait Monitoring

Fazio

Perrone

Velázquez

et al. 2021

Sensors

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The evolution of low power electronics and the availability of new smart materials are opening new frontiers to develop wearable systems for medical applications, lifestyle monitoring, and performance detection. This paper presents the development and realization of a novel smart insole for monitoring the plantar pressure distribution and gait parameters; indeed, it includes a piezoresistive sensing matrix based on a Velostat layer for transducing applied pressure into an electric signal. At first, an accurate and complete characterization of Velostat-based pressure sensors is reported as a function of sizes, support material, and pressure trend. The realization and testing of a low-cost and reliable piezoresistive sensing matrix based on a sandwich structure are discussed. This last is interfaced with a low power conditioning and processing section based on an Arduino Lilypad board and an analog multiplexer for acquiring the pressure data. The insole includes a 3-axis capacitive accelerometer for detecting the gait parameters (swing time and stance phase time) featuring the walking. A Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 module is included for transmitting in real-time the acquired data toward a PC, tablet or smartphone, for displaying and processing them using a custom Processing® application. Moreover, the smart insole is equipped with a piezoelectric harvesting section for scavenging energy from walking. The onfield tests indicate that for a walking speed higher than 1 ms−1, the device’s power requirements (i.e., ) was fulfilled. However, more than 9 days of autonomy are guaranteed by the integrated 380-mAh Lipo battery in the total absence of energy contributions from the harvesting section.

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“…[ 123 ] As shown in Figure 16 , Wang et al used PVDF transducer as the energy harvester and sensor to simultaneously generate electrical energy and monitor the foot pressure. [ 124 ] By deploying different PVDF sensors on the hindfoot and forefoot, the foot pressure can be collected and analyzed while producing electrical power. Besides powering the pressure sensor, Nour et al demonstrated the feasibility of powering a wireless transmitter and LED display.…”

Section: Possible Self‐powered Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Human Motion Excited Energy Harvesting Systems for Wearables

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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The development of wearable electronics and sensors is constrained by the limited capacity of their batteries. Therefore, energy harvesting from human motion is explored to provide a promising embedded sustainable power supply for wearable devices. Herein, the principles, development, and applications of human motion excited energy harvesters are reviewed. The energy harvesters are classified based on the human motions with distinguished characteristics: center of mass motion (COM), joint motion, foot strike, and limb swing motion. According to the motion characteristics, the principles, features, and limitations of different energy harvesters are discussed, and the power generation performances are compared. Finally, various self-powered applications enabled by embedded energy harvesters are introduced, so as to show the great potential of embedded energy harvesting systems in boosting the development of the wearables.

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Self-Powered Smart Insole for Monitoring Human Gait Signals

Cited by 26 publications

References 29 publications

Reactive fungal insoles

Reactive fungal insoles

Development of a Self-Powered Piezo-Resistive Smart Insole Equipped with Low-Power BLE Connectivity for Remote Gait Monitoring

Recent Advances in Human Motion Excited Energy Harvesting Systems for Wearables

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