Textile-based Pressure Sensors for Monitoring Prosthetic-Socket Interfaces.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Rehabilitation Engineering

Background:

• Amputees frequently experience discomfort due to ill-fitting prosthetic devices, a growing concern with an increasing amputee population.
• Developing advanced prosthetic technologies is hindered by the absence of practical sensors for monitoring the inner socket environment (ISE).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel, comfortable, and scalable textile-based capacitive pressure sensor system for monitoring the ISE.
• To assess the feasibility of using these sensors for real-time ISE data collection in amputees.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a fully-textile capacitive pressure sensor using conductive yarns and standard textile materials via a sewing process.
• Development of a low-power, high-speed data acquisition system capable of supporting multiple sensor arrays.
• Validation of sensor performance using custom-built simulated prosthetic environments.

Main Results:

• The developed textile sensors are soft, flexible, and comfortable, suitable for direct integration into prosthetic liners.
• The sensor system demonstrated high-speed data collection capabilities from up to four sensor arrays.
• Successful in-situ monitoring of the ISE in a bilateral transtibial amputee, validating the system's practical application.

Conclusions:

• The novel textile-based capacitive pressure sensors present a promising, unobtrusive solution for monitoring the ISE.
• This technology has the potential to significantly improve prosthetic comfort and fit by enabling continuous ISE assessment.
• Further development could lead to enhanced prosthetic socket design and improved patient outcomes.