Flexible Insole Sensors with Stably Connected Electrodes for Gait Phase Detection

Gait analysis is an important assessment tool for analyzing vital signals collected from individuals and for providing physical information of the human body, and it is emerging in a diverse range of application scenarios, such as disease diagnosis, fall prevention, rehabilitation, and human-robot interaction. Herein, a kind of surface processed conductive rubber was designed and investigated to develop a pressure-sensitive insole to monitor planar pressure in a real-time manner. Due to a novel surface processing method, the pressure sensor was characterized by stable contact resistance, simple manufacturing, and high mechanical durability. In the experiments, it was demonstrated that the developed pressure sensors were easily assembled with the inkjet-printed electrodes and a flexible substrate as a pressure-sensitive insole while maintaining good sensing performance. Moreover, resistive signals were wirelessly transmitted to computers in real time. By analyzing sampled resistive data combined with the gait information monitored by a visual-based reference system based on machine learning method (k-Nearest Neighbor algorithm), the corresponding relationship between plantar pressure distribution and lower limb joint angles was obtained. Finally, the experimental validation of the ability to accurately divide gait into several phases was conducted, illustrating the potential application of the developed device in healthcare and robotics.