A wearable system for lower limb movement analysis

This present work describes the performance evaluation of a wearable system realized on a textile substrate able to monitor lower limb movements. More precisely, the research focuses on the design and realization of a wearable system for analyzing the knee joint and on the possibility of using a sensing garment in clinical and sport applications. Firstly, a static and dynamic characterization of CE sensor is described. A part of this work is dedicated to the analysis of the excessive rotational laxity of the knee joint. To do this, we realized a particular prototype devoted to monitoring the internal-external angle of the knee. Since the rotation angle is small and its measurement is influenced by soft tissue artifact, we developed a new device that was designed to calibrate the sensing garment and to apply stresses that simulate those applied by clinicians during injury assessment. Finally, a preliminary pilot study was performed in order to discriminate between healthy subjects with normal walking and pathologic subjects having undergone post-surgery therapy.

Autorentext

Mario Tesconi graduated in Electronic Engineering at the University of Pisa in 2001. In 2007 he received the PhD in Automation, Robotics and Bioengineering at the University of Pisa. He is currently working on the development of the sensing Knee-Band, which allows to measure angles and dangerous posture of the joint. He is author of several papers.