Ankle Foot Orthoses are used for rehabilitation after ankle injuries or pathologies, but their effectiveness and recovery time can be affected by improper patient use. To address this issue, an instrumented Ankle Foot Orthosis can assist doctors in monitoring the patient's gait cycle, enabling the development of a personalized rehabilitation plan. In this paper, an Ankle Foot Orthosis capable of monitoring the gait cycle and the deformation of the orthosis is proposed and preliminary analyzed. The system consists of two force sensors to detect ground contact, a strain gauge bridge to measure orthosis deformation, and an inertial module to analyze the gait cycle. An Arduino Nano is used to acquire these signals after electronic conditioning. The microcontroller transmits data to a lowpower Bluetooth module, which communicates with a LabVIEW program where the data is displayed in real time and stored in a text file. After characterizing the entire system, a PCB board is developed and mounted onto the orthosis using a support printed with a 3D printer.
Wireless Instrumented Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) for Gait Cycle Monitoring: A Preliminary Study
Mahraoui S.;Serpelloni M.
2025-01-01
Abstract
Ankle Foot Orthoses are used for rehabilitation after ankle injuries or pathologies, but their effectiveness and recovery time can be affected by improper patient use. To address this issue, an instrumented Ankle Foot Orthosis can assist doctors in monitoring the patient's gait cycle, enabling the development of a personalized rehabilitation plan. In this paper, an Ankle Foot Orthosis capable of monitoring the gait cycle and the deformation of the orthosis is proposed and preliminary analyzed. The system consists of two force sensors to detect ground contact, a strain gauge bridge to measure orthosis deformation, and an inertial module to analyze the gait cycle. An Arduino Nano is used to acquire these signals after electronic conditioning. The microcontroller transmits data to a lowpower Bluetooth module, which communicates with a LabVIEW program where the data is displayed in real time and stored in a text file. After characterizing the entire system, a PCB board is developed and mounted onto the orthosis using a support printed with a 3D printer.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
