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Monitoring of Carried Weight During Walk Using a Wearable Pedobarography System

Authors:
Per Hellstrom
Mia Folke

Keywords: pedobarography; carried weight; portable; wearable; insole; in-shoe

Abstract:
Personal health monitoring is advantageous in heavy work environments to reduce the risk of wear and tear and acute injuries. The study of forces between the plantar surface of the foot and a supporting structure, pedobarography, is a promising candidate for monitoring carried weight during walk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost effective pedobarography measurement system, IngVaL. Two aspects are evaluated, namely, how well IngVaL can monitor carried weight during walk and if the novel implementation increased the durability. Fifteen test persons made five treadmill walks with a carried weight of 10, 20, 0, 15, and 5 kg. The equipoise analysis method was used. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for estimation of the carried weight was 13.8 kg. A study with the earlier version of the measurement system had a RMSE of 23.3 kg. The earlier system, as well as commercial systems using this kind of sensors, have problems with sensor durability. The new sensor implementation, where the active sensor area boundary was no longer affected by mechanical stress, resulted in no broken sensors. This study shows an increased performance of carried weight estimation compared with earlier work, together with an improved sensor durability.

Pages: 5 to 8

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019

Publication date: July 28, 2019

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-8440

ISBN: 978-1-61208-734-4

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from July 28, 2019 to August 2, 2019