Wearable Sensing for Solid Biomechanics (original) (raw)
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Electronic textiles for in situ biomechanical measurements
2004
This paper describes the benefits of and issues in designing and building an integrated, body-worn electronic textile (e-textile) system capable of assessing a suite of biomechanical measures. Unlike laboratorybased systems, this system would be worn by a soldier and could be used in a range of environmental conditions. A prototype e-textile developed at Virginia Tech has already shown promising results in the area of gait analysis.
Flexible Multifunctional Sensors for Wearable and Robotic Applications
Advanced Materials Technologies, 2019
where there is a need for high sensitivity, accuracy, flexibility, and low cost. For such applications, the sensors must be compatible with large-area processing techniques and readily integrated into flexible devices, and effort in this area has accelerated the range of potential applications. [1] Empowering robots and skins with high resolution, high sensitivity, and rapid response sensing capabilities is significant to a broad range of applications including wearable healthcare devices, human-machine interacting robots such as service robots for the elderly [2,3] and electronic skin (e-skin) applied on or in the body that provide an unprecedented level of diagnostic and monitoring capabilities. [3,4] Flexible multifunctional sensors are essential components of e-skin to allow biomedical prostheses and robots to naturally interact with humans and the environment. The design and development of future e-skins have attracted significant interest in recent years, in particular an emphasis on being able to mimic the mechanically compliant yet highly sensitive properties of human skin, [4,5] multifunctional and simultaneous sensing, [6-8] and mechanical self-healing. [9] It is suggested that the modern multifunctional e-skins have great potential in non-invasive, high-fidelity, and continuous radial artery pulse wave monitoring. [4] They can also be used in future mobile health monitoring and remote diagnostics in cardiovascular medicine. [10] Figure 1 outlines examples of the multifunctional sensing needs and stimuli. This can include pressure, strain, or shear sensing using piezoelectric or piezoresistive effects or monitoring responsive color changes due to mechanochromic effects, or using photonics or liquid crystals. Temperature can also be monitored, for example, by using pyroelectric or thermochromic effects. Chemical sensing can also use piezoelectric effects, for example, by monitoring mass changes using resonance. The pressure generated by normal touch, object manipulation, and human body circulation are often distributed in lowpressure regimes (<10 kPa) and medium-pressure regimes (10-100 kPa). [11] Piezoelectric pressure sensors, which develop an electric charge in response to a mechanical load, have been widely and successfully used for pressure distribution measurement. Applications include prostheses (<1 kPa), [12] diagnostics This review provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art of the emerging field of flexible multifunctional sensors for wearable and robotic applications. In these application sectors, there is a demand for high sensitivity, accuracy, reproducibility, mechanical flexibility, and low cost. The ability to empower robots and future electronic skin (e-skin) with high resolution, high sensitivity, and rapid response sensing capabilities is of interest to a broad range of applications including wearable healthcare devices, biomedical prosthesis, and human-machine interacting robots such as service robots for the elderly and electronic skin to provide a range of diagnostic and monitoring capabilities. A range of sensory mechanisms is examined including piezoelectric, pyroelectric, piezoresistive, and there is particular emphasis on hybrid sensors that provide multifunctional sensing capability. As an alternative to the physical sensors described above, optical sensors have the potential to be used as a robot or e-skin; this includes sensory color changes using photonic crystals, liquid crystals, and mechanochromic effects. Potential future areas of research are discussed and the challenge for these exciting materials is to enhance their integration into wearables and robotic applications.
A review on fabrication, characterization and implementation of wearable strain sensors
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2020
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Implantable sensor technology: measuring bone and joint biomechanics of daily life in vivo
Stresses and strains are major factors infl uencing growth, remodeling and repair of musculoskeletal tissues. Therefore, knowledge of forces and deformation within bones and joints is critical to gain insight into the complex behavior of these tissues during development, aging, and response to injury and disease. Sensors have been used in vivo to measure strains in bone, intraarticular cartilage contact pressures, and forces in the spine, shoulder, hip, and knee. Implantable sensors have a high impact on several clinical applications, including fracture fi xation, spine fi xation, and joint arthroplasty. This review summarizes the developments in strainmeasurement-based implantable sensor technology for musculoskeletal research.
Test-Bench for the Characterization of Flexion Sensors Used in Biomechanics
Electronics
The design, prototyping and validation of an innovative test bench for the characterization and the hysteresis measurement of flexion sensors are presented in this paper. The device, especially designed to test sensors employed in the biomedical field, can be effectively used to characterize also sensors intended for other applications, such as wearable devices. Flexion sensors are widely adopted in devices for biomedical purposes and in this context are commonly used in two main ways: to measure movements (i) with fixed radius of curvature and (ii) with variable radius of curvature. The test bench has been conceived and designed with reference to both of these needs of use. The technological choices have been oriented towards simplicity of manufacture and assembly, configuration flexibility and low cost of realization. For this purpose, 3D printing technology was chosen for most of the structural components of the device. To verify the test bench performances, a test campaign was c...
Science advances, 2016
Physiological mechano-acoustic signals, often with frequencies and intensities that are beyond those associated with the audible range, provide information of great clinical utility. Stethoscopes and digital accelerometers in conventional packages can capture some relevant data, but neither is suitable for use in a continuous, wearable mode, and both have shortcomings associated with mechanical transduction of signals through the skin. We report a soft, conformal class of device configured specifically for mechano-acoustic recording from the skin, capable of being used on nearly any part of the body, in forms that maximize detectable signals and allow for multimodal operation, such as electrophysiological recording. Experimental and computational studies highlight the key roles of low effective modulus and low areal mass density for effective operation in this type of measurement mode on the skin. Demonstrations involving seismocardiography and heart murmur detection in a series of ...
Sensors
This work presents a modular approach to the development of strain sensors for large deformations. The proposed method separates the extension and signal transduction mechanisms using a soft, elastomeric transmission and a high-sensitivity microelectromechanical system (MEMS) transducer. By separating the transmission and transduction, they can be optimized independently for application-specific mechanical and electrical performance. This work investigates the potential of this approach for human health monitoring as an implantable cardiac strain sensor for measuring global longitudinal strain (GLS). The durability of the sensor was evaluated by conducting cyclic loading tests over one million cycles, and the results showed negligible drift. To account for hysteresis and frequency-dependent effects, a lumped-parameter model was developed to represent the viscoelastic behavior of the sensor. Multiple model orders were considered and compared using validation and test data sets that m...