A Novel Sensorised Insole for Sensing Feet Pressure Distributions

Wearable sensors are gaining in popularity because they enable outdoor experimental monitoring. This paper presents a cost-effective sensorised insole based on a mesh of tactile capacitive sensors. Each sensor&#8217;s spatial resolution is about 4 taxels/cm<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msup> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> in order to have an accurate reconstruction of the contact pressure distribution. As a consequence, the insole provides information such as contact forces, moments, and centre of pressure. To retrieve this information, a calibration technique that fuses measurements from a vacuum chamber and shoes equipped with force/torque sensors is proposed. The validation analysis shows that the best performance achieved a root mean square error (RMSE) of about <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <mn>7</mn> <mo>&nbsp;</mo> <mi mathvariant="normal">N</mi> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> for the contact forces and <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <mn>2</mn> <mo>&nbsp;</mo> <mi mathvariant="normal">N</mi> <mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> for the contact moments when using the force/torque shoe data as ground truth. Thus, the insole may be an alternative to force/torque sensors for certain applications, with a considerably more cost-effective and less invasive hardware.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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