Wang, L orcid.org/0000-0002-4123-4159, Jones, D, Chapman, GJ et al. (4 more authors) (2020) Design of a Digital Triaxial Force Sensor for Plantar Load Measurements. In: 2019 IEEE SENSORS. 2019 IEEE SENSORS, 27-30 Oct 2019, Montreal, Canada. IEEE ISBN 978-1-7281-1634-1
Abstract
Measurement of load information on the plantar (lower) surface of the foot can provide valuable insights to help identify pathologies like diabetic foot ulcers. Studies have shown that both plantar pressure and shear stress play an important role in foot disorders, especially ulcer formation. However, in this context shear stress is much less studied in comparison with pressure distribution, mainly due to the lack of reliable measurement technologies. In this paper, we propose a triaxial force sensor for measuring plantar loading. The sensor consists of an array of sensing coils combined with an elastomeric spacer and a conductive target. Under loading, the sensor demonstrates differential variations in inductance which are digitized by built-in conditioning circuitry and decoupled. A 3D finite element (FE) model was developed for the system as a design tool. This was validated experimentally and demonstrated a high agreement to the results. In experimental evaluation with multiaxial loading the sensor showed precise operation over the operating range (RMSE: 0.05 N for shear (-1.5 N - 1.5 N) and 0.70 N for normal force (0-13 N) measurements). The FE model was then used to investigate the effect of undesirable tilting of the target. The results indicated that it is important to minimize the tilting of the target for robust operation in real-world scenarios.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 European Union. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. |
Keywords: | 3D Finite element modelling; digital triaxial sensor; plantar pressure distribution; plantar shear stress |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Systems and Design (iESD) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/R041776/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Feb 2020 12:18 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:09 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IEEE |
Identification Number: | 10.1109/sensors43011.2019.8956606 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157092 |