Low-cost Wearable Multisensory System for Human Gait Capture applied to the Orthopedic Orthopedic
Exoskeleton Ortholeg 2.0
Orthopedic Exoskeleton, Sensory Fusion, Information Filter, Encoder type sensor, Flex sensor, Inertial Measurement Unit.
Nowadays, several researches are underway with respect to orthopedic exoskeletons for lower limbs. Nevertheless, the ability of these exoskeletons to carry out anthropomorphic movements is still a problem that researchers confront. However, a recent research developed a statistical method for gait synthesis taking into consideration the individual characteristics and parameters of movement of each individual. Therefore, in order to the orthopedic exoskeletons reproduce the peculiarities of the movements of each user, it is necessary to construct a database that provides all the necessary information, to the statistical model characteristics and parameters of the movements. However, kinematic parameter capture systems are too expensive, and require specific environmental conditions, such as luminosity and precise positioning of the cameras, which often make it difficult to use them. In this context the objective of this work is to present the development of a low cost and wearable multi sensorial system that allows to measure kinematic parameters of the anthropomorphic movements. For this, the Information Filter was used, which is an estimation technique to perform fusion of sensor data that allows to obtain more accurate information of the system. The measured parameters will be stored in a database to be used by the statistical method utilized in Ortholeg 2.0 Orthopedic Exoskeleton. The proposed system composed of four encoder type sensors, five inertial measurement unit sensors and four flex sensors, allowing to measure the kinematic parameters of the anthropomorphic movements.